The Marauders and the Rogues
by PrincessEarth
Summary: The infamous Marauders weren't alone in their love for pranking. In fact, they often had their butts kicked by a bunch of girls. Now, this is it. Seventh year. Four girls, four boys. Two opposing pranking teams. One hell of a battle to be won.
1. The War Begins

**Plot:** The infamous Marauders weren't alone in their love for pranking. In fact, they often had their butts kicked by a bunch of girls. Now, this is it. Seventh year. Four girls, four boys. Two opposing pranking teams. One hell of a battle to be won.

**Disclaimer:** Sad as it may be, I am not J.K. Rowling in disguise, and therefore I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters and themes involved. (I do, however, own Jamie, Hannah and Regan and most elements of the plot - so no poaching.)

**Quick note:** Yes, I edited it _again_. It seems like every time I read over this chapter, something else is wrong with it, or the structure/characterisation/general English is worse than I remember, or it doesn't all make complete sense... or _something_. I get that with most chapters, actually, so instead of the "Defect Massacre" I had planned (don't ask), I've decided to revise this whole story more thoroughly. No, before you ask, I won't be making any seriously drastic changes, although there will be some chapters that I have to combine/separate/rearrange, and one that I plan on rewriting in its entirety (Chapter Four, if you're wondering, because I have big plans for fixing up the flashback). Anyway, as for this chapter in particular, I haven't done anything much because I can't bring myself to change the original. So yeah, reread = not entirely necessary.  
Man, will I _ever_ write a "quick note" that's _actually_ quick?

* * *

**Chapter One: The War Begins**

"Head Girl?" Jamie cried. "_You're _Head Girl?"

Lily gave a quiet laugh at her friend's tone of desperation. "Thanks, Jay. Have I told you you're the queen of compliments?"

"I didn't mean it that way," Jamie reassured her. "It's just that... well, I guess I got my hopes up over the holidays. I thought I stood a bit of a chance, but obviously..." She trailed off and sighed, looking down at her knees.

"Prefect's not that bad, you know," Hannah chimed in. "You still get to yell at people, only... well, without all the prestige attached to it."

Regan, seated on her right, leaned in and looked at Lily as if about to impart some deep secret. "I hear the Heads get a cosy little dormitory all to themselves, too," she said, not without a wiggle of her eyebrows (a classic Regan gesture).

Lily liked the idea of having a private place to go and think or do whatever else she felt like doing, but it was then that a sudden thought occurred to her. Just who would she be sharing that dormitory with?

"I wonder who got Head Boy?" Lily mused aloud, her forehead creasing in thought.

Regan smirked. "I'm curious as to what train of thought brought you to that, Lils," she said suggestively. "Private dormitory... Oh, so who's Head Boy?"

Hannah laughed loudly while Lily blushed. "No, Reegs. Not all of us have such dirty minds."

Jamie, looking thoughtful, brought them back on topic. "So who do you think it is, then?" she asked. "It could be Amos Diggory, I suppose, but didn't a Hufflepuff get it last year?"

"Dumbledore's never had a problem with repeats before," Lily pointed out.

Hannah snorted. "Yeah, but c'mon - this is _Hufflepuff_ we're talking about."

"So... I guess that rules out O'Keefe as well," Regan said in all seriousness.

The other three burst out laughing, and the sound echoed off the walls. "Regan!" Jamie chided, though it was somewhat hypocritical of her considering she couldn't seem to stop giggling. Amanda O'Keefe was an unfortunately masculine-looking Hufflepuff in their year, and it didn't help that on her first day at Hogwarts, she'd mistakenly walked into the boys' lavatory. She would never live that down.

"Oh, well," said Lily with a sigh. "I'll be okay working with anybody except for a Marauder." She frowned deeply at the thought. What if, for some completely absurd reason, Dumbledore had made one of them Head Boy? That would certainly make for an interesting year, and a difficult one at that. She could just imagine spending afternoons with Potter or Black, attempting to discuss school matters while they threw Every Flavour Beans incessantly at her head. It was possible she might be able to tolerate Lupin, but he was only the lesser of three evils. She didn't include Peter in this silent evaluation simply because... well, even if Dumbledore were smoking dungbombs, there was no way Peter Pettigrew would ever be considered for the position of Head Boy.

"Don't be silly," Hannah said with a confident shake of her head. "If a Marauder got Head Boy, then Filch is my father."

Lily laughed at that; it was an accurate (not to mention incredibly reassuring) comparison of probabilities. After that, they were silent for some time.

The four of them were seated in a rectangular train compartment, dimly lit with cushioned seats on opposite walls. The lantern that hung from the ceiling swung back and forth with the motion of the train, creating a slow and even squeaking noise.

Lily sighed as she watched the green hills roll by, as if in motion. She longed to be out there. Anything would beat another year of tedious work, exams and avoiding James Potter. On top of her NEWTs and the usual workload, Lily now had all the duties that came with being Head Girl on her plate.

It wasn't as though Lily was not an excellent student – in fact, the only person who could rival her grades was one of her best friends. Even so, she found herself wishing that Jamie had made Head Girl in her stead.

Lily took a brief moment to look at her friends, whom she had not seen since before the summer had begun. It seemed incredible that although she had known them such a long time, they had all changed so very little since that day, precisely six years ago, when they had set foot on the Hogwarts Express for the very first time.

Hannah, with her bouncy blonde curls and wide chocolate-coloured eyes, still had that same everlasting, mischievous smile on her lips. Jamie had maintained that shy and yet breathtaking beauty, with her waist-length golden locks and eyes of crystalline blue. And Regan... How exactly could one describe her? She was never anything but _Regan _- sarcasm, mischief and fierce protectiveness all rolled into one oddball of a witch. She had a personal rule against wearing make-up, but if it wasn't for the don't-come-within-ten-feet-of-me vibes that her look seemed to expel, the girl would actually be quite attractive, what with her deep blue eyes and raven black hair.

Upon their arrival at Hogwarts in first year, Lily, Hannah, Jamie and Regan had been brought together by a series of mishaps, some of which had taken place on the Hogwarts Express, and others which had occurred in the following week. What had caused them to bond so easily, aside from having a common enemy, was their knack for mischief. A few of them hadn't been so keen on all the rule-breaking at first, but they had quickly stood out as the brains of the group, making them crucial to the execution of any plan. The four of them had even come up with a name for their pranking group: the Rogues.

Lily was pulled from her reverie by Regan, who spoke in her usual dry, sarcastic tone, though her words were not cynical in the slightest.

"You know," she said. "Our Lily's got it all. The brains, the beauty, the backup-" (she gestured at herself, Jamie and Hannah) "- and now, the badge."

"Impressive alliteration," Lily tossed in with a nod, attempting to hide her blush.

"Thanks, Regan. Now I'm _really _depressed," Jamie said sulkily, folding her arms and sinking lower into the seat.

A short moment later, a familiar voice sounded from down the aisle.

"Anything from the trolley, dears?"

"That's my cue," Jamie said, and got up. "If anybody wants me, I'll be in the hallway, binging on cauldron cakes." With that, she slipped through the door and disappeared.

Silence filled the compartment for a few lengthy minutes, until it was broken, yet again, by Regan.

"What's taking her so long?" she wondered aloud, glancing at her silver watch.

They waited and waited, and finally, the door slid open. A flustered Jamie slipped in and shut it hastily behind her.

"Whoa, why the hurry?" Lily laughed, furrowing her brow. Jamie let out a squeal that was halfway between frustration and terror. She appeared unable to speak or move, so Hannah got up and helped her into a seat between herself and Regan.

"So?" Regan began to interrogate the petrified girl as soon as she was seated. "Spill!"

Jamie gulped and at last seemed to find her voice. "Well, I was in the middle of buying four cauldron cakes – one for each of us of course, but you know what a pig I would've looked like, buying that many."

Lily nodded sympathetically.

"Cut to the chase!" Regan urged impatiently.

"Okay, okay!" Jamie cried defensively. "Anyway, I was buying the cauldron cakes when who should come along but _Frank._"

Frank was one of the two seventh year Gryffindor boys who wasn't a Marauder - and that, Lily thought, was one effortless thing he had going for him. On the other hand, even though he wasn't particularly unattractive or repulsive in any way, his shy and studious manner - something he had in common with Jamie - made him almost invisible to most girls.

"So he came along, and I panicked and tried to hide the cauldron cakes in my pocket, which of course made the trolley lady think I was shoplifting - and made a right mess of my robes - so I apologised and quickly paid for them. Anyway, Frank came up to me and asked if we could have a short talk, so I got all confused and followed him like some bumbling idiot to the back of the train. Then-"

Regan yawned loudly.

"Hey!" Jamie cried out, looking insulted. "Weren't you the one who asked to hear this story in the first place?"

"Ignore her," said Hannah, covering Regan's mouth with her hand. "Go on."

"Okay. So this is the weird part. He told me that he thinks I'm really pretty, which of course is alright - I mean, I get that all the time-"

Regan snorted.

"Hey, she was only being honest." Hannah shrugged.

"Guys!" exclaimed Lily. "Shut up and let her finish the story!"

"Thank you, _Lily_." Jamie nodded at her. "Well, then he started mumbling weirdly for a minute, like he'd forgotten I was even there. Then, out of the blue, he..." She paused, swallowing audibly. Then she looked at them very gravely and announced, "He asked me out."

Everyone clapped their hands to their mouths – including Jamie.

"Are you serious?" Lily said, holding back laughter. "Frank Longbottom asked you out? What on Earth did you say?" Come to think of it, it wasn't all that strange. She just couldn't imagine the painfully timid Frank Longbottom actually plucking up the courage to ask a girl on a date. Of course, because of this, Jamie had been a wise choice - she, too, was shy by nature, and was less likely to throw it back in his face than almost any other girl at Hogwarts.

"I said I'd think about it," Jamie replied quietly, confirming Lily's suspicions.

"You idiot!" Regan exclaimed, clapping her gently on the back of the head. "Now you've gone and gotten his hopes up!"

Before Jamie could respond, the girls were distracted by something just outside the window. It resembled a small black box, and was suspended about a foot from the train, as if levitating midair.

"What the hell is that?" Hannah wondered aloud, her forehead creasing in confusion. "I don't remember seeing-"

Then, so suddenly that Lily's heart jumped into her throat, a tall human figure appeared, plastered against the window pane. Its face was distorted – eyes wide, mouth stretched, cheeks misshapen - as it was pressed hard against the glass. Its appearance was so abrupt and so startling that all four of them screamed at the top of their lungs, jumping out of their seats and hurrying away from the window; Jamie fell back into Regan, causing them both to land on the floor. There was a flash of light, and the figure disappeared.

They looked at each other in frightened amazement, exchanging silent questions with their eyes. No one said anything for a while, but, as usual, it was Regan who broke this trend.

"What the _bloody hell_ was that?" she said loudly, her voice shaky and her breathing heavy from the shock as she helped Jamie to her feet.

Lily could only stare, gobsmacked, out the window. Her gaze remained steadily fixed on the place where the figure had been only seconds ago. So steadily fixed, in fact, that she barely heard Hannah say, with an overload of vehemence, "Why, those little _gits_..."

Lily broke out of her trance just in time to see the blonde on her way out of the compartment. "Wait, Hannah, where are you going?" she asked.

"Sirius," growled Hannah, and flung the door open.

It was at that moment that the answer finally dawned on Lily. A wave of frustration washed over her, and she stomped after Hannah. Jamie and Regan tagged along as well. Ahead of Lily, Hannah halted in front of the compartment to the left of theirs. She huffed and threw open the door.

"You!" she cried.

A chuckle and a deep, mocking voice came from inside. "Well, if it isn't the Rogues."

Seated in the compartment were four boys lounging about in that typical, careless teenage-boy manner. One, sporting glasses, had a snitch in his hand and was gently plucking at its fluttering silver wings; a second had his feet up on a trunk and was flipping lazily through a book of some sort, while another, who was rather pudgy with stringy hair, was stuffing a pumpkin pasty into his mouth. He looked up when the Rogues barged in, his cheeks bulging out comically. The fourth boy was sprawled in the seat nearest the door, his legs stretched out and his hands behind his head.

The Marauders.

More commonly referred to (well, by the Rogues, at least - the general population was somewhat love struck when it came to three of the Marauders, though Lily couldn't understand why) as "those ruddy gits," "the enemy," or "oh, not them," the Marauders were Hogwarts' most notorious band of troublemakers, but only because the Rogues were generally more secretive in their mischievous pursuits. James, Sirius, Remus and the pathetic Peter had combined forces the very same day the Rogues had, and the two groups had clashed at once. As they often liked to say, perhaps a little overdramatically, the school wasn't big enough for the both of them. So after the first not-so-pleasant meeting, when the groups had repelled each other like the wrong ends of two magnets, they'd declared each other enemies, and the war had begun.

Lily had worried about this year to some degree, because, as she was sure they were all aware, it marked the conclusion of their epic battle. The pranks would be more brutal than ever before. Not only that, but neither team would settle until a winner had been decided. Who knew how it would be resolved? One way or another, it was sure to be big.

Presently, the Marauders looked as though they were struggling against an enormous laughing fit. Lily had a sudden urge to strangle them; unfortunately, Hannah got there first. She grabbed Sirius by the collar of his robes and, with surprising force, hoisted him into a standing position.

"Easy, Milton!" Sirius choked, though he made a point of giving the impression that he was hardly bothered by her at all.

"What did you _do_?" Hannah spat, furious.

"Oi, Milton," James called out, fighting against laughter. "D'you suppose he might tell you if you _stopped_ choking him?" His voice, Lily was surprised to note, was much less taunting than usual; it had an almost... well, authoritative tone to it. How strange.

Raging, Hannah pulled her hand away from Sirius and, instead, drew her wand. "If you want to stop me rearranging your face, then you'd better speak now – and FAST!" she threatened.

Sirius chuckled, but stopped immediately when Hannah made to flick her wand at him.

"Alright, alright!" Sirius gave in, and turned to James. "Oi, Prongs! Give us the picture!"

"Prongs?" Regan laughed; it had a dark edge to it. "What are you, a fork?"

The Rogues burst out laughing despite the tension in the air. They'd heard the Marauders' odd nicknames before, but apparently Regan had only now concocted that joke - which, Lily had to admit, was pretty good, considering how difficult it was to have any impact when ridiculing the Marauders. Even Peter had to bury a snort in his sleeve; Remus responded to this by giving him a swift smack on the shoulder with his book, which looked very heavy. Peter mouthed a silent "_What was that for_?" but Remus did not respond, as he was too busy watching James pull a piece of glossy parchment from his pocket.

"Classic," chuckled James as he passed the parchment to Sirius. "Perfect blackmail material, if I may say so myself."

"Well, we can't believe that until you show it to us," said Jamie with impatience, crossing her arms resolutely.

"Fine," said Sirius, smirking. "Take a look, then."

He held the parchment up so that the girls could see what was on it. Lily expelled an angry gasp at what she saw. It was not, in fact, just any old piece of parchment, but a full-motion, black and white photograph. The four people in it – Lily made out her friends' faces and her own – were in their seats one moment, and the next, they leapt up, and, rather embarrassingly, screamed in terror, tripping over one another as they stumbled away from the window. Expressions of shock were blatantly displayed upon their faces, which were distorted with fright. It was then that Lily realized what the black box outside the window had been: a camera, waiting to capture their expressions in picture. James was right – this _was_ perfect blackmail material.

_Ugh_, thought Lily. _Trust the Marauders to come up with a nasty trick like this_. She wondered how long it would take for them to pin up copies of the photograph all around Hogwarts.

"Clever, huh?" Sirius said smugly, holding the photograph far over Hannah's head while she desperately tried to snatch it out of his grasp, jumping and reaching to no avail (he had a massive height advantage over her, which was something he never ceased to put to use). "All we really needed was a bit of sticky-flesh potion and a simple levitation charm for the camera, and _voila_! Priceless expressions! I wonder what the students of Hogwarts will think of it when we enlarge it and stick it up in the Great Hall. I think a mural would be very appropriate, don't you?" He regarded the image as if genuinely considering his design options.

"You wouldn't dare," Jamie said dangerously. Her voice was low and very serious, her eyes narrowed with fury. Lily, seeing fit to take more direct action, marched up to Sirius, looked straight into his eyes - which, infuriatingly, had "What are you going to do about it?" written all over them - and said, with a tone of indignation:

"Fine. Let them see it. Anyone would scream if they saw your ugly mug stuck to a train window."

Sirius' smirk faltered a little, but he was evidently trying not to let her words disturb the Marauders' moment of glory. Thoroughly fed up, Lily marched out of the compartment, her friends close behind. Just before she closed the door, she stuck her head back in and added:

"Oh, and if that prank was the best you've got, you guys are _seriously_ in trouble - and that pun was very much intended, _Sirius__._" With that, she shut the door and followed her friends back to their compartment.

* * *

**A/N:** Like it? Hate it? Completely indifferent? Whatever your opinion is, please make sure to leave a review and tell me what you think. :) Constructive criticism is welcomed, and I'll gladly take any suggestions into consideration. I'm sorry about the lack of real Lily/James action in this chapter (I kind of had to establish the whole feud thing to start off with), but there's more to come soon - I swear!

~PrincessEarth


	2. Wings of Revenge

**Plot:** The infamous Marauders weren't alone in their love for pranking. In fact, they often had their butts kicked by a bunch of girls. Now, this is it. Seventh year. Four girls, four boys. Two opposing pranking teams. One hell of a battle to be won.

**Disclaimer:** Sad as it may be, I am not J.K. Rowling in disguise, and therefore I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters or themes involved. (I do, however, own Jamie, Hannah and Regan and most elements of this specific plot—so I'd appreciate it if no poaching occurred. Thanks.)

**Quick note (6/19/10):** Same deal with this chapter—just another quick edit. A bit of surface polishing, some fleshing out, etc.. Reread if you like, but fundamentally, it's the same as before (although hopefully less cringe-worthy).

* * *

**Chapter Two: Wings of Revenge**

Once the Rogues had returned to their own compartment and the door was firmly shut behind them, Jamie was the first to burst out, her tone indicating that she was severely distraught.

"My _god_ are we in for some serious embarrassment," she groaned. She plunked herself down by the window and glared out at the passing landscape, as if it were the cause of all this drama.

"Tell me about it," Lily replied, equally frustrated. "Give them a few days and the whole school will have seen that picture. I mean, honestly, did you _see_ our faces?" She shook her head bitterly.

"How could I not?" said Hannah. "We looked like a bunch of disoriented banshees."

Lily slumped into her seat, looking helplessly up at the others. "So what are we going to do?"

"Oh, come on." Regan was smirking now. "That prank was lame. We can do plenty better than that—sticking a moron to the train window? I'll bet Pettigrew was the mastermind behind that one." She rolled her eyes. "Anyway, if you're up for it, I reckon I've got an idea." She wiggled her eyebrows; the gesture made her look somewhat deranged, but that was okay, because it was often when Regan got thinking like a crazy person that some of their most brilliant pranks were born.

"Are we talking _revenge_?" Hannah's face lit up at the prospect. As a rule, her excitement level shot up about ten notches whenever somebody so much as mentioned an opportunity to harass the Marauders. It didn't matter if it was for payback or an unjustified attack—she was all for it.

Regan nodded enthusiastically as she spoke. "_Major_ revenge."

"Well, whatever it is you've got in mind, I'm in," was Hannah's wholehearted reply, but then she paused for a moment to consider. "Well, unless you're planning to offer me up as bait or something. Or make them sing. Oh, dear Merlin, _please_ don't make them sing. My eardrums will never be the same again."

"Agreed," said Lily matter-of-factly. "Okay, Regan, shoot," she said to her dark-haired friend, and she and the others leaned in to the centre of the compartment, listening intently.

* * *

Fifteen minutes later, Lily and Jamie stood in silence, practically glued to the wall and watching with bated breath as Regan and Hannah crept along the carpeted hallway and kneeled in front of the Marauders' compartment door. Lily, acting as a lookout, kept her eyes peeled for anyone who might come along and get suspicious (which was very possible, you know, considering the whole flattening-selves-against-wall, crawling-around-on-the-floor look they had going on). Worse still, if that person who came along happened to be a supporter of the other side (and indeed, the Marauders had _plenty_ of contacts in other houses; somehow, despite their obnoxious personalities, popularity was one area where they truly did have the Rogues beat), they might give them away to their targets. That could _not_ happen.

She bit her lip as she saw Hannah slide the door open just wide enough to slide a shrunken camera inside the compartment. (The Marauders weren't the only ones with state-of-the-art equipment.) Through the crack, Lily could faintly hear the Marauders' conversation.

"So...," said a voice that belonged, undoubtedly, to James, "are we really going to use this as blackmail? 'Cause, you know, I get a fair laugh just out of looking at it." She heard a short chuckle; it sounded like he had that horrific picture in front of him as he spoke. Lily had to wonder for a moment if that really _was_ James speaking. Why on Earth would _he_ suggest that they keep the picture to themselves? James had never hesitated to humiliate the Rogues before now. Had he somehow developed a conscience over the summer? She shook off the ridiculous thought. James Potter, arrogant, merciless prankster, with a conscience? She would have laughed out loud if she hadn't suddenly remembered where she was and what she was supposed to be doing.

Keeping an eye on the corridor all the while, she tuned back into their conversation.

"Prongs, you idiot. Of course we are," said the deep, husky voice of Sirius Black. "Wormtail just had his first stroke of genius and you don't want to exploit it to its full potential? What is wrong with you, mate?"

The compartment was silent for a moment or two, and Lily took this time to be briefly amused at the fact that Peter _had_ come up with the prank after all. Then James spoke again, and he sounded as though he'd reluctantly returned to his old way of thinking.

"So... we can obviously get a few up in Gryffindor Tower, but where else?"

Remus was the next to speak, if Lily had indeed identified the voice correctly. "I'm sure Abbott would do us a favour and stick some up in the Hufflepuff common room."

From here, there was an indecipherable buzz of excited discussion as they (presumably) considered various other locations for the blackmail picture. Amidst their conversation, Lily heard the words, "Great Hall", "girls' toilets" and "wallpaper". She felt her stomach tighten as she realised with further conviction what terrible humiliation the Rogues could be in for. She didn't even want to think about what the context of that last snippet of conversation might have been.

"Guys, er..." Peter's rather high-pitched voice interrupted the animated exchange of ideas. "I don't know about all this. I mean, they've probably got a lot of pranks up their sleeves already and—" she thought she heard him gulp, though it was hard to tell "—they're going to get us back _bad_ for this one."

Lily smirked with satisfaction, at least until she heard the other three Marauders burst into laughter. It was definitely an accomplishment to inspire fear so early on in the game—but Peter? He was a total coward. Just about anything could inspire fear in that boy. The rest of them, on the other hand... They had a more conceited attitude toward the feud. Even when the Rogues one-upped them, they refused to admit—even for a moment—that they been beaten. It was one of the many reasons they were so infuriating.

"They're _girls_, Wormtail," said Sirius in an infuriatingly smug manner. "How bad can they possible be?"

At these words, Lily pulled a disgusted face. It was typical of the Marauders—especially Sirius—to think themselves superior on account of something as insignificant as gender, but it never ceased to annoy Lily. Feeling a renewed sense of urgency, she turned to her friends.

"_Hurry up!_" she whispered as quietly and as insistently as possible, when she noticed that Hannah had become quite distracted by Sirius's insulting words. Hannah shook her head quickly as if to jostle herself back to reality and hastened her attempts to position the camera; a moment later, Lily received a thumbs-up.

_Now for the tricky part_, she thought to herself, wincing in anticipation as Regan slowly drew her wand and pointed it at the gap between the doors.

She could see her inhale deeply, preparing herself, and then...

"_Apparito avium!_"

She spoke the incantation in nothing more than a whisper, and then everything fell silent - but only for a brief moment.

"What the hell?"

Lily could hear angry, confused voices drifting toward them through the compartment door—which Hannah promptly drew shut—and, judging by the tiny yellow feathers that had fluttered out into the corridor (not to mention the mad chirping), the spell had worked. The Marauders' compartment was now filled with a flock of vicious canaries—several dozen of them, at least. Everything had gone exactly according to plan. Lily grinned. _Excellent_.

"Quick!" Hannah hissed. She ushered them all back into their own compartment as Lily tried hard to suppress the laughter that was rising from her chest. Once inside, Regan pulled the door shut and Jamie, Lily's only rival where the art of Charms was concerned, stood back, brandishing her wand.

"_Ostium compegi_!" she uttered; with a burst of silver light, a large golden padlock appeared on the door.

Between the four of them, there was a general exhalation of relief. It was comforting to know that the Marauders were safely bolted out of their compartment—that they were on this side and the enemy was on the other, and there was no way those four horrible boys could possibly barge in and start harassing them. If their reaction to the prank was anything like the Rogues' had been, the issue of confronting their assailants would undoubtedly be the first thing that crossed their minds once they managed to ward off the savage yellow birds. Judging by the muffled sounds of panic they could hear from their compartment, however, the Marauders were still in the midst of a full-blown struggle, so even if they could get into the compartment, that confrontation wouldn't be happening anytime soon.

"Hey, I think I can hear something..." Hannah had her ear pressed firmly against the dividing wall and was listening intently, trying to pick out individual noises. Her eyes popped open with excitement as she eavesdropped, and she called out to the others. "Quick, get over here! This is brilliant!"

Lily hurriedly put her own cheek on the wall. In an instant, she could hear the distinct voices again. This time, however, they weren't nearly as smug as before.

"Argh!" she heard Remus cry out in distress.

"It's pecking me!" shouted Peter. "Ow! Somebody help me! MUMMY, HELP ME!"

"Get these bloody things off m—SHIT! THAT HURT!"

Lily laughed out loud at James' desperate voice. There were a few crashing noises here, a few yelps over there, and even a high-pitched shriek, which, Lily decided, could only have come from Peter. In all, this had to be one of the funniest things she had ever witnessed. She could hardly wait until they got the camera back.

The _camera?_

The camera…

Oh, crap.

"Regan!" she hissed; Regan's head whipped away from the wall at once. "We forgot to get the camera!"

"Damn it! How could I forget?" she practically shrieked, jumping off the seat in a panic and racing for the exit. "Jamie! Lily! Somebody with brains—how do you counteract this locking charm you cast on the door?"

"Did you not learn _anything_ in first year?" Jamie demanded.

"Yes," she said defensively. "I learned how to make the pile of books fly out from under Flitwick's feet. In case you haven't yet been enlightened, it's just _slightly_ more interesting than actually listening to him." Regan shook her head quickly, as if suddenly remembering the pressing situation. "Besides, now's not the time for chitchat, you nerd. Can you do something?"

"Yes—stand aside," said Jamie, and pointed her wand at the apparently impenetrable padlock. "_Alohomora!_"

The lock exploded quite violently, sending shards of metal into the air around them. Lily shielded her face purely out of instinct, but before they could reach her, the tiny pieces of lock disappeared into soft clouds of blue smoke. Regan, without even waiting for the explosion to die down, bolted out the compartment door.

"If it was that simple," said Hannah, "couldn't the Marauders have just cast that spell if they wanted to get in?"

Lily and Jamie smirked at one another. "Nope," said the former. "That was a special locking charm we had on there. It could only have been opened from one side—this one."

Just then, Regan flew back into the compartment with the camera in hand.

"Great job!" Lily breathed in relief. Unfortunately, she'd spoken too soon—she could tell that something was wrong when a hand closed around Regan's ankle, pulling her to the ground.

"Regan!" screamed Lily, frantically trying to grab her friend's arms and tear her away from James, who was on the floor, pulling the struggling dark-haired girl in the opposite direction. "Let go of her, you idiot!"

"Take the camera and close the door!" Regan cried, throwing the loot from her mission into the compartment. Hannah caught it deftly, but spoke up in protest.

"No, Regan! We can't leave you out there!" But Sirius, Remus and Peter were already advancing rapidly, ready to take the camera, or attack, or do something worse and even more Marauder-like. If they didn't act fast, the results would not be good. Without another thought, Lily took hold of the door and shut it with all the force she could muster.

"_Ostium compegi!_" Jamie blurted out in a rush, and the padlock reappeared.

Lily fell back into one of the seats, panting. "Well, that just sucks. But at least we got the camera." Then she looked up in alarm as she remembered the purpose of their dangerous quest. "Hannah, quickly! Have you got it?"

"Yeah, just gimme a sec," replied Hannah, who was just as flustered. She reached up to the overhead rack and, with Jamie's help, pulled her trunk down. She then opened it and rummaged through her belongings, in the end pulling out a tray and a small bottle of amber-coloured potion. She placed the tray on the compartment floor, emptied about a quarter of the bottle's contents into it, and turned to Jamie, who was holding the camera.

"You'll probably want to enlarge it first," Lily advised. She pulled out her wand and pointed it at the camera in Jamie's hands. "_Engorgio_."

"Thanks." Jamie reached into the side of the device and pulled out what looked like a small tag. "Here." Hannah took it from her and submersed it in the liquid. The tag began to change at once; it grew to about five times its original size, and a full-colour, full-motion image appeared quite clearly upon it. Lily could make out the Marauders and about fifty ruffled balls of feathers. James appeared to be fending off about a dozen with a potions book, while Sirius was swatting violently at his head, where a pair of particularly vicious birds were pecking at his scalp and plucking out some of his hair; Peter was cowering in a corner, and a large gang of canaries had managed to hoist Remus up to the ceiling and were repeatedly bashing him against it. Fortunately for the Rogues (or at least their blackmailing purposes), all four boys wore comical, frightened expressions on their faces. This picture was the perfect recipe for a boatload of embarrassment. There was no doubt about it—they had outdone the Marauders in this round.

"This is perfect," Lily giggled, but the glory didn't last long. In fact, as soon as she spoke, there was a deafening bang and the door burst open. All four of the Marauders stumbled in, followed by Regan, who was struggling under Sirius's firm grasp on her arms. James and Remus held bird cages packed with stunned canaries, and all four boys wore expressions of rage and were covered from head to toe in feathers and scratches, their clothes thoroughly torn.

"I suppose you think this is funny?" James deadpanned.

"Well, yeah," admitted Hannah, evidently holding back laughter. She turned momentarily to Lily. "And hey, Lils, I thought you said they wouldn't be able to get in!"

Lily shrugged while maintaining a steady glare in the Marauders' direction. "Well, they _shouldn't_ have been able to. Unless they used a really, _really_ powerful explosion charm. But they _obviously_ wouldn't do that, because it could cause lasting damage to the train, which happens to be school property." She gave the boys a reprimanding look and gestured at the door, which had practically been blown to smithereens.

"You want to talk about damage?" said Remus in a dangerously low voice. He pointed at his shredded robes. "I'll show you damage."

"Well, that's what you get," said Jamie, shrugging.

Peter held up a fist and shouted pathetically, "You'll pay for this!"

At this, Lily exchanged a look of silent amusement with Jamie. "_We'll _pay? Oh, I don't think so. You see, you haven't met my little friend here..." Lily reached back and pulled the photograph out of the tray. She stretched it out and put it out in front of her for the Marauders to see, making sure to keep a good grip on it in case they made any sudden moves to snatch it out of her grasp. All four of the Marauders underwent a transformation from angry to angrier as they laid eyes on the picture.

"You don't know what you're getting yourselves into," growled Sirius, who was glaring at them all. "You'd better pull out while you still can, because let me tell you, it's only going to get worse from here. Hand it over, Evans."

"Oh, we have no intention of doing that," Jamie countered sweetly. "We _were_ going to propose a trade, but..."

"We decided it wasn't worth it," Hannah finished. Ours is _much_ better, as you can see."

"It doesn't matter," said Sirius firmly. "We wouldn't barter with the likes of you anyway."

Lily raised her eyebrows and brandished the picture. "Well, in any case, you can say goodbye to your dignity—in about fifteen minutes, this will have reached every compartment in the train." She drew the picture back and gesturing toward her overfed but nevertheless very competent owl, Griggins.

"Oh no, you don't," James threatened. "Send that out, and we'll do the same with ours. Yours might be more humiliating, but you've got to admit, this is pretty bad. And besides, I'll bet you anything my owl's faster than that feather duster."

"Hey!" said Lily, offended for her owl's sake. "Leave Griggins alone. So what if he's had a few too many cauldron cakes—"

"You feed him cauldron cakes? No wonder he's so fat."

"Shut up, you two, that's not the point," said Hannah impatiently. "I say we just duel here and now. That'll settle it, don't you think?" She whipped out her wand, raising an eyebrow in a challenging gesture. In an instant, Sirius matched it; he was as ready as she was.

Regan suddenly spoke up, having gone unnoticed by everyone until now. "Err, guys? Think you might have forgotten something?" She was still standing with the Marauders, with one of Sirius' hands clasped firmly around her upper arm. Somehow, even amidst his preparations for the proposed duel, he'd managed to forget that he was still keeping her prisoner. All heads turned in Regan's direction.

"Oh, whatever," said Sirius, shoving her back into the group of girls. She stumbled and nearly fell to the ground, but was caught by Hannah just in time. "Now are we going to duel or not?"

"Hell yeah," said Hannah, steadying herself once again. Beside her, Regan pulled out her own wand. On the other side, Peter had done the same, but the remaining two Marauders simply kept a hand in their pockets, ready to act defensively at a moment's notice but not entirely enthused by the idea of launching into a full-blown duel if they didn't have to. Lily decided to mirror this precaution, knowing that she couldn't do anything to stop Hannah at this point, but also knowing that, if she joined in, she would get in serious trouble (and there was no way she wanted to get on the teachers' bad sides when she'd just been appointed as Head Girl. Absolutely no way). She paused with her fingers halfway into the pocket of her robes when she realised it was _Potter_ she was copying from. Again the questions entered her mind: Potter, a role model? As if. She had little time to dwell on this anomaly, however, because Sirius and Hannah were all ready to go ahead with the duel—by the time Lily brought herself focus back to reality, they were already beginning the countdown.

"Alright then," said Sirius dangerously. "Just don't go off crying to McGonagall when I whoop your butt, Milton."

"Oh, you don't have to worry. There's no way in hell that's going to happen, because you're not going to win."

"Oh yeah? Well, we'll see about that. Ready? Three... two... one—"

"Stop. This is ridiculous."

Normally, an intervention like this would go completely unnoticed—or at least blatantly ignored—by Sirius and Hannah, who were so absorbed in their not-so-friendly competition that nothing could stop them from firing a thousand hexes at one another. In this case, however, it was the shock more than anything that made them stop what they were doing and look up at the person who had interrupted them. It wasn't because of the words that had been spoken—it was because of who had spoken them.

James.

Lily, too, had to do a double take. His behaviour had already surprised her today, but this was taking it to a whole new level—he'd just reprimanded his long-time best friend and partner-in-crime, not to mention suggested that duelling was "ridiculous". This, coming from the mouth of somebody who'd spent almost his entire school life hexing unsuspecting students in the grounds? Rich, Lily thought. But... at the same time, it planted a little seed of hope. Maybe.

"What _happened_ to you over the summer, Prongs?" Sirius demanded, lowering his wand arm and turning to regard his friend as if he'd just declared his wholehearted desire to ditch the Marauders and join forces with the Rogues. "It's just a little duel. You've never had a problem with me hexing her before." He gestured at Hannah as he spoke these last words. It was true; Sirius and Hannah had duelled on many previous occasions—on the train, in the corridors, out in the grounds, even in class a couple of times—and James had never done anything to stop them. In fact, he'd always given Sirius his full support. But now...

James looked torn as he tried to find his voice. "Sorry. It's just..." He paused, sighing. "Maybe we shouldn't start things off this early, you know? I mean... we haven't even gotten to school yet, and we're already getting ready to jinx the crap out of one another. We'll have plenty of time for pranks and duels once we get there. But at this rate, it's going to be first year all over again." The collective mood in the compartment darkened at the mention of that very first day on the train, when feud had unofficially begun."So... why don't we just hold off for a while—call a truce?"

Nobody spoke; everybody just stared at the ground and waited for someone else to break the shell-shocked silence. Hannah and Sirius looked annoyed at the premature termination of their duel; Peter looked confused, Remus thoughtful, and Regan sort of impatient—and there was no way Jamie would speak unless somebody else spoke first.

As for Lily... There was a bit of emotional conflict going on in her head right now. It was practically second nature for her to contradict anything and everything that Potter said, mainly because, well... he was Potter. But suddenly, she found herself inclined to agree with him. There wasn't a single part of his argument that she could honestly say was wrong, or untrue, or unjustified... or anything negative, for that matter. He had a point. A strange, never-before-heard-from part of her wanted to speak up and vouch for him, tell the others that he was right. The rest of her screamed that this would be completely ridiculous—that the day she admitted to agreeing with Potter about _anything_ was the day that the universe would implode.

But she couldn't stop herself. Before she knew it, she was stepping forward and opening her mouth without even pausing to think. "He has a point," she said with a shrug of her shoulders. This was met with stunned expressions from most of the others, but she went on anyway. "Well, I think a truce sounds decent. We should just trade—our picture for yours. Besides, we're going to be so swamped with essays in the first few weeks of school that we probably won't have time for pranking—not for a little while, anyway." Lily didn't need eyes in the back of her head to know that Hannah and Regan were rolling theirs; as far as taking school seriously went, the Rogues were divided right down the middle: Lily and Jamie, the overachievers, and Regan and Hannah, both of whom could dream of snagging an O only for their Quidditch skills. It was unfortunate that the only subject at Hogwarts they excelled at was the one that wasn't graded.

"They're right," said Remus, who hadn't spoken until now. "We should get a feel for how seventh year's going to be, and then, when we're all settled in, we can start the pranks." When Sirius looked outraged at the fact that two of his team members were turning on him, Remus added, "Come on, Padfoot. A couple of weeks won't kill you."

Sirius made a disgusted noise in his throat. "Whatever." He reached into his pocket, pulled out the picture, and handed it to James. "You do the honours then, if you're so keen."

Lily hardly noticed Hannah retrieving their own photograph from her robe pocket, but when she gently placed it in Lily's hand, she froze up and stared incredulously at her friend.

"What?" Hannah whispered, sounding a little bit annoyed. "It's not like this was my decision."

Reluctantly, Lily took it from her and moved slowly forward to perform the exchange. She couldn't help but be a tad suspicious—what if this whole newfound-maturity thing was just an act? What if James simply took the photograph, laughed in her face and ran off with both blackmail items in hand? That would certainly be a very immature, very _Potter_ thing to do… She prepared herself for any nonsense, gripping the picture with tense fingers.

But as Lily held out her own photo, he did the same. She put out her other hand; he put his out, too. It was almost... well, awkward. Wait a second—since when were things awkward between her and Potter? For that matter, since when were they anything but absolutely explosive? Their interactions were always effortless, but only because it was easy to hate somebody like him. Awkwardness, however, implied slightly more neutral feelings. Who would ever have thought neutral could be such a bad thing?

_Just take it_, Lily told herself firmly, and, following her own advice, she thrust out her free hand to grasp the paper. In the process, she mistakenly brushed James's hand with her own, and her breath caught in her throat. The sensation had her paralysed; his skin sent a shock through her, almost as if there were electric currents running off his fingers. _Don't be stupid, Lily. That's ridiculous. That's… improper._

Inadvertently, she looked up at him, only to find that he was staring down at her as well. From his gaze, Lily gathered that he was just as confused as she had felt a mere moment ago. She found that it was almost impossible to break eye contact—his eyes narrowed and his forehead creased in thought, while she felt her own expression becoming increasingly puzzled as well. Finally, she was able to let her eyes drop to the picture in her hand and she pulled away, letting go of the other.

"Truce?" Lily proposed shakily.

"Truce," he replied in a voice almost as unsteady as her own.

Lily turned on her heel and stepped back over to the others, realising as she did so that she'd been holding her breath for quite some time.

"Alright, that does it," Sirius announced, unable to disguise the cynicism in his voice. "No pranks until we call off the truce. Thanks a lot, Prongs, Evans."

There was a general nodding around the compartment, followed by more silence. For a while, nobody looked at anybody else. There was no bickering, no physical fighting, no talking at all. Just silence accompanied by an undeniable tension in the air.

This, Lily had to admit, was a _very _strange start to the year for the Marauders and the Rogues.

* * *

**A/N: **So that's the two-part introduction all done with now. I know these two chapters haven't explained very much, but their purpose was mainly to establish the feud between the teams and introduce the, er, _changes_ that are going to come about in their seventh year. Did I succeed? Is there anything you're really confused about? Any comments, questions, suggestions, criticisms—you know what to do. :) Also, if you're interested, make sure to check out the website I made for this story. There are pictures, profiles, polls—and a bunch of other things, but none of them begin with 'p' and I don't want to ruin the alliteration. I like alliterations, in case you haven't yet noticed. Anyway, the link is at the top of my profile. Make sure to take a look if you have the time. :)

Thanks for reading!

~PrincessEarth


	3. When Life Gives You Lemons

**Plot:** The infamous Marauders weren't alone in their love for pranking. In fact, they often had their butts kicked by a bunch of girls. Now, this is it. Seventh year. Four girls, four boys. Two opposing pranking teams. One hell of a battle to be won.

**Disclaimer:** Sad as it may be, I am not J.K. Rowling in disguise, and therefore I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters or themes involved. (I do, however, own Jamie, Hannah and Regan and most elements of this specific plot—so I'd appreciate it if no poaching occurred. Thanks.)

**Quick note (8/2/10):** Edited for the first time in... Oh, I don't know. EVER. So yeah, I know I said I wasn't going to be doing any rewriting aside from Chapter Four, but I couldn't help it. This was ridiculously bad—quite possibly the worst of the lot. So I wrote out some changes I wanted to make. And I looked back at the chapter. And I decided to delete it all and start from scratch, because there was no way I was going to salvage anything from that piece of shit.  
I'm sorry. I really did want to keep this story in its original form, but some things were beyond repair. I swear, though, nothing is earth-shatteringly different in this version. It's just a smoother read with a little more detail, and it makes more sense (I hope). And hey, it doesn't seem like it was written by a five-year-old anymore! That's an accomplishment in itself!  
(For anybody who's reading this story for the first time... Just, uh, pretend this is how it was right from the get-go. Yes. Do that.)

* * *

**Chapter Three: When Life Gives You Lemons**

"What the hell was that for?" Hannah exclaimed as soon as the Marauders had left the compartment. Though she kept her voice low, fully aware that the boys would be able to hear her through the dividing wall if she spoke to loudly, she managed to convey her feelings of distress through a an almost comical wide-eyed expression and a hissing tone that made Lily cringe.

"I... I'm sorry," said Lily, her eyebrows knitting together in a kind of contemplative confusion. That was a good question. Why _had_ she done it? It wasn't that she was scared of the Marauders—not at all. She had a great deal of faith in the Rogues' ability to outwit them, and she was fairly confident that, had the exchange not taken place, she and her friends would have walked away victorious. It was just that... she'd thought she'd spotted a miracle in James just then, and honestly, it would have been stupid to just beat that miracle with a stick. So she'd taken advantage of the apparent lapse in his egotism, embracing this sudden maturity and showing some support for what appeared to be a newborn conscience. There was nothing wrong with that.

Was there?

Something snapped in Lily's mind right then, and it was like being woken from a long and bizarre dream. What on Earth had she been thinking, standing up for James like that? He was a Marauder—the bane of her existence, no less. He'd made a point of asking her out every day since third year, and on top of that, he and his stupid friends were responsible for countless pranks targeted not only at Lily and her friends, but at the (mostly) innocent students of Hogwarts; pranks that had traumatised and injured people all over the school. For the most part, they'd only made the Rogues stronger, more prepared for whatever the Marauders might throw at them next—but certain ones had affected them rather profoundly. Some were unforgivable.

The point was, just because James acted like a decent human being for two seconds didn't mean Lily should go revaluating her entire opinion of him. He was still an arrogant jerk, and as far as she knew, he always would be.

"Hell, Lily, are you even listening to us? Can you not feel the shame raining down upon you?"

Lily snapped out of it, physically shaking her head in an attempt to rid herself of the strange feeling that seemed to have settled over her since that moment with James. Maybe it was shame, as Regan was so melodramatically suggesting, standing before Lily with her hands on her hips. Or maybe it was something else.

No, she would put it down to shame. Anything else would just be crazy.

"I said I was sorry!" said Lily desperately, crossing the compartment and sitting down, more to calm her thoughts than anything. "I honestly don't know what I was thinking." She paused, sighed, and tried to put her thoughts into words. "I just... seemed so _weird_ for Potter to stand up and stop us from fighting like that. It's almost as if he's—"

"Been taking lessons from McGonagall?" Hannah suggested with a completely straight face.

Giving her an expression that was torn between a glare and a half-amused smile, Lily shot back a cynical retort. "In case you haven't noticed, Han, we all take lessons from McGonagall. Transfiguration, remember? That class you've been taking for six years?" She rolled her eyes and went on. "And actually, I was going to say _matured_. But forget it—it's not humanly possible."

"So then why did you give them the picture?" Regan desperately wanted to know.

"I told you, I've got no clue!" Lily was flustered now, racking her brain for an answer to the question that had been haunting her ever since the encounter with the Marauders. "It was weird, okay? For some reason I felt like I had to... back him up or something, you know? I mean, you have to admit, not all of what he was saying was total bollocks." She offered them a defiant look, raising an eyebrow and challenging them to contradict her.

Straightaway, Hannah did just that. "Oh, trust me, it was. Every word of it."

"Yeah," said Regan. "What's all this shit about schoolwork before pranks? Some people these days— really need to sort out their priorities..."

Lily exhaled in a huff and turned toward the window, resuming her classic staring-mindlessly-out-at-the-hills stance. This pretence was rather inappropriate given that, this time, she actually had an awful lot on her mind.

She was Head Girl. That much, as she had come to realise, she could handle. Not because she'd had a change of heart since her earlier reluctance to accept the position, but because it had begun to pale in comparison to other new developments. Say, like, James Potter being all chivalric and rational. That could take a while to get used to.

_No_, she reminded herself. _There will be no "getting used to it"_. _This is temporary. A moment of insanity. He'll be back to his old self first thing tomorrow_.

Hopefully by tomorrow, she wouldn't feel so bloody confused either.

Sadly, she knew that chances of things getting easier from here were slim. They hadn't even arrived at school yet, and already she felt like the whole world was trying to throw her off balance—two run-ins with the Marauders, Jamie's strange little encounter with Frank, that weird electric spark that had passed between Lily and James, her sworn enemy... She felt like she was in some crazy, warped alternate universe. Maybe things would settle into a more familiar routine once they were within the confines of the castle, but probably not. This was seventh year: the ten months in which her entire magical education was on the line; the year in which the feud would have to come to an end. Things were only going to get more complicated from here on out.

Possibly sensing that the other two were about to launch into another chastising rant about the pictures and Lily's sudden change of heart, Jamie made an effort to change the subject. "So, how were everybody's holidays?" she asked innocently.

The Rogues had made plenty of effort to keep in touch throughout the summer, but as their letters (especially Hannah's and Regan's) tended to revolve more around plotting against the Marauders than anything else, they'd had little opportunity to exchange polite conversation about holiday activities. Hannah and Regan lived next-door to one another in a sprawling magical community packed with notorious pureblood families, so they usually spent their holidays together. Jamie and Lily, however, both had Muggle ancestry (for Jamie, her paternal side; for Lily, her entire family) and lived among the non-magical folk, and so they were somewhat out of the loop when it came to their friends' summer antics.

Apparently, Jamie's tactic worked; as soon as she brought up the subject of the holidays, Regan forgot all about whatever she might have been about to say and adopted a cool, stiff expression as she obviously recalled the events of her summer.

"The worst," she said simply. "You know my parents."

Lily couldn't say that was entirely true; she knew Regan's parents for their reputations and what she was told about them by their daughter. From what she'd gleaned from Regan's many incensed rants, Ivette and Gallahad Tain were oddballs even by wizarding standards. They were of good lineage, attended gatherings with all the highest calibre witches and wizards of their generation, and flaunted the usual stone manor with enough space to house an army. They were, however, frowned upon by the elite wizarding society for several reasons—primarily their secrecy, their extravagant (and often quite disturbing) choices of clothing, their alleged association with a strange clan of wizards in the East, and, above all, the fact that, unlike most pureblood families, they'd all been sorted into Hufflepuff. All, that was, except for Regan and her brother, who had been placed in Gryffindor and Slytherin respectively. It had come as a low blow to the Tains when their children had deviated from the family pattern, as they had always been strangely proud of their atypical tradition. In fact, Ivette and Gallahad seemed to pride themselves on being as different as possible from those around them. Regan was much the same in her originality, but she disapproved of her family's behaviour—particular her brother Zachary's disturbing idol-worshipping of Gellert Grindelwald despite the fact that he was long defeated—and because of this, had become a completely separate entity. At one point, she had been hell-bent on dropping her surname—but such a feat was extremely difficult in the wizarding world, where ancestry was everything.

So yes, Lily knew a fair bit about them, but she'd only actually met the Tains on a couple of occasions, and she'd never exchanged any more than a few words with them. Despite being such a unique family, they still held the typical pureblood stance when it came to Muggleborns—and when they'd found out that their daughter was "consorting" with one at school, they'd been given more reason yet to believe Regan was out to tarnish the family's reputation. As if it could get any more tarnished than it already was.

"Yeah, she spent most of the summer at my house," said Hannah, a mixed look of concern and amusement evident on her face. She came from a comparatively peaceful household, and it was practically a second home to Regan, and often visited by the other Roges, too. "Annie and Clara went to Romania with Mum, so we pretty much had the run of the place. And after Reegs _finally_ joined me in the land of full-fledged witches—"

"Shut up."

"—yes, well, once she finally got her butt in gear and turned seventeen, we had an awesome time."

Lily smirked. She could just imagine Regan and Hannah abusing their newly-earned privileges, summoning things from all over the house, apparating everywhere, causing as much mayhem as they possibly could. She pitied the other inhabitants of Diricawl Crescent, who'd probably had to put up with a lot this summer.

"What about you, Jay?" she asked, turning her attention to her caramel-haired friend.

Jamie frowned. "Actually, mine were pretty boring. Indira was going to take me to Ireland for a bit, but for some reason the Ministry had to shut down part of the Floo network, so... I mostly just hung around at home. It was alright, though—I managed to get a good head start on this year's reading."

"Yeah, that _does_ sound boring," Regan scoffed with a roll of her eyes. "Next?" she said loudly, indicating Lily, who paused to think for a moment.

"Not much interesting—unless you count the fact that Petunia called me a freak one hundred and forty six times," she offered, eliciting a half-smile from each of the others. She'd decided, since it would probably be her last summer at home with her sister, to keep a tally monitoring Petunia's ever-decreasing vocabulary. In all, it had been mildly entertaining, if a little depressing. "But aside from that, it was all Muggle stuff. Nothing that would interest you guys."

"Oh, please," said Hannah, as if what Lily had suggested was completely ridiculous. "We're very interested in Muggle things. We know you spend all day talking on your teffylones—"

"Telephones," Lily corrected, "and no, we don't."

"Whatever," said Hannah, "it's a stupid word anyway."

Just then, there was a cautious sort of knock on the compartment door. The Rogues exchanged wary glances; could it be the Marauders again?

"No, it wouldn't be them," Lily said quietly to the others, remembering the truce and how serious a few of them—ironically, not including Sirius himself—had been about it. It wasn't likely that they would be back so soon. Even they weren't quite _that_ immature.

Trusting that Lily was right about this, Hannah pulled back the sliding door. At first, it appeared there was no one there at all, and Lily was almost convinced that this was the lead-up to another prank after all—until she shifted her gaze down a few feet and saw a very tiny, very nervous girl dressed in Ravenclaw robes and clutching a small envelope to her chest. She stared at them with wide eyes for a couple of seconds, apparently unable to form the words required to explain herself.

"Well? Spit it out!" said Regan rather loudly, causing the girl to jump. Regan had a tendency to scare the living daylight out of young children; it could have been the general vibe she gave off, but Lily suspected she did it deliberately, probably for entertainment purposes.

"Professor M-McGonagall wanted me to deliver this," the girl stuttered. "It's for her," she quickly added, pointing at Lily.

Afraid that Regan was about to say something else to upset her, Lily hurried forward and took the envelope from the girl's hands. "Thank you," she muttered, glancing down at the letter. The girl was gone before the words had even left her mouth.

Lily studied the envelope. It was plain and vaguely yellowed with _Lily Evans_ scrawled across it in black ink. McGonagall's cursive was unmistakable; a clear reflection of her general demeanour, it was sharp, hasty and looked as though it had been etched into the parchment by a tense hand. She'd become something of an expert at distinguishing the writing of the teachers at Hogwarts. Each one, she found, was a true representation of the penholder's qualities; Slughorn's was extravagant and sort of goofy, Trelawney's was near impossible to decipher, and Dumbledore's was long and lean, albeit rather loopy. Some—Hagrid's, especially—were downright comical.

"Are you going to open it or not?"

Startled out of her momentary reflection, Lily glanced up to see Hannah staring intently at the envelope in her hands. Beside her, Regan looked even more impatient, while Jamie (as usual) was serene and silent.

Lily was still in a daze from earlier, so it took her a moment to gather her bearings before she said, "Oh, right," and began to open the envelope. The seal was the standard red one—stamped with the Hogwarts coat of arms—and it only took half a second to peel it off and extract the letter, which was very concise indeed.

_Miss Evans,_

Please make your way as soon as possible to the staff compartment in the first carriage, where I will be awaiting you with further details regarding your position as Head Girl. Tell your friend Miss Love that she too will be required in ten minutes' time.

Minerva McGonagall

A sudden surge of trepidation crossed with excitement gripped Lily's chest. Not only would this meeting with McGonagall solidify her position as Head Girl, make it seem more official, it would also answer the questions that had been nagging at her ever since she'd received her letter in the summer holidays. One, what exactly would she have to do to prove herself in this position? And two, just _who_ would she be working with?

Come to think of it, it wasn't as big a deal as all that—but she couldn't help feeling a little on edge as she folded up the letter, slid it back into the envelope, and began to prepare herself for the meeting.

"Do I look okay?" she asked anxiously, tucking a few errant strands of hair behind her ears and smoothing out her robes.

"Yeah, duh—but why?" inquired Hannah, who, along with the others, was still completely unaware of what was going on.

"Were you invited on a lunch date with Diggory or something?" was Regan's interpretation of the situation, spoken in an offhand manner.

Lily glared, trying to hide the blush rising to her cheeks. Regan was joking, of course, but now that she thought about it—_really_ thought about it—Amos Diggory was actually a very likely candidate for Head Boy. They'd written him off earlier due to his being in Hufflepuff, but admittedly, he _did _fit the requirements quite perfectly. He had excellent grades, was popular among both students and teachers, and had a sort of charming politeness about him that made him seem gentlemanly and responsible. Even though he wasn't currently a Prefect, such a situation wasn't unheard of—and in the past two years, he'd done far more to prove himself worthy of the badge than Paul Abbott, the existing Hufflepuff Prefect, had. _Yes,_ Lily finally decided. _If that isn't Head Boy material, then I don't know what is_. The thought of being paired with him, however, only served to make her more nervous, and suddenly, she found herself unable to breathe in any sort of normal fashion.

"Lils," said Jamie slowly, "would you please stop hyperventilating and tell us what's going on?"

Inhaling deeply, Lily turned to look at her, her features set in all seriousness. "First Heads meeting," she said simply, albeit a little shakily. "It's up in the first carriage—I've got to go right now, and you need to be there in ten minutes with the other Prefects." She turned to face the others and asked them again, "Are you sure I look decent?"

Regan pretended to be uncertain as she gave her a onceover. "Actually, you've got spinach stuck in your teeth, and your face looks like it got attacked by a skrewt. And... is that _bird crap_ in your hair?"

Hannah elbowed her out of the way and presented the door to Lily. "Yes, you idiot," she said in exasperation, choosing to ignore Regan's comments. "You look brilliant, as usual. Now go!"

Nodding hurriedly, Lily gathered her bearings one final time and headed out of the compartment, ready to meet her fate.

* * *

Halfway down the corridor, she encountered something worse than fate:

James Potter.

He came out of the Marauders' compartment just as she was passing by, looking a little anxious at first but quickly assuming that lazy, flirty stance of his as soon as he saw Lily approaching. _There,_ she thought. _That's the Potter I remember_. There was something reassuringly familiar about witnessing the return of his old self, though considering how much she despised that old self, she wasn't sure why.

"Hey, Evans," he said casually, leaning an elbow against the wall and blocking her path. He'd cleaned up after the canary incident and changed into his school robes (something Lily and the Rogues had done just about as soon as they'd boarded the train, wanting to be prepared for any Marauderly hijacks that might come about). As always, she noted, his hair was sticking out at odd angles, his shirt untucked, his sleeves rolled up, and that annoying, lopsided grin ever-present on his face. She'd failed to notice earlier, but it appeared he'd—infuriatingly—grown a couple more inches over the summer. He was a good head taller than her already, and though she tried not to let this intimidate her, it definitely served as an advantage to him. The muscles in his arms seemed to have become more pronounced, too—something she was just beginning to notice when she came to her senses and abruptly cut that train of thought, mentally scolding herself. Unfortunately, it was too late; James had noticed her wandering eyes.

"Checking me out, are you?" he said, looking amused.

"No," Lily scoffed, answering perhaps a little too quickly. Her scowl deepened and she folded her arms as she tried to change the subject. "Are you going to get out of my way, or am I going to have to hex you?"

James, mirroring her stance in a more casual manner, folded his arms, looking just as smug as before. "You wouldn't do that," he said.

"Oh yeah?" Lily shot back. "And why not?"

His next response irked her. "Because you've just been made Head Girl, of course. Speaking of which, I suppose congratulations are in order." Even though his tone was teasing, it wasn't quite the same as what she was used to; there was something underneath that arrogant nonchalance—some underlying motive that Lily couldn't quite put her finger on. It was almost like he knew something that she didn't, and was trying to exploit it for as long as possible.

"How did _you_ find out I was Head Girl?" Lily demanded snidely.

James shrugged. "As you've probably discovered already, those walls are paper thin. And your friends were making a pretty big deal of it earlier."

Lily blushed, wondering what else he might have heard through the compartment wall. Again, purely out of embarrassment, she attempted to divert the conversation. "Whatever," she said. "I have to get to a meeting. Official business, Potter—though you probably don't even know the meaning of those words... So if you'll excuse me..."

To her surprise, he stepped right out of her path, leaving her free to walk away down the aisle. "Thank you," she said, taken aback just a little. She should have known, of course, that this show of kindness was too good to be true; as soon as she began to walk, he fell into step right behind her.

"What are you doing?" she asked, stopping in her tracks and turning to face him.

James raised his eyebrows as he, too, stopped. "Er, I'm going this way, too. Is there a problem with that?"

Lily wasn't sure whether or not to be suspicious. He sounded pretty genuine, but honestly, what business would he have down at this end of the train? The first carriage housed only staff members and, only temporarily, those few students who were invited for important meetings or other—less official—gatherings (an example of which being Slughorn's occasional start-of-year "Slug Club" get-together, which, apparently, wasn't happening this year—if it had been, Lily would certainly have known straightaway). They still had a couple of carriages left between here and there, but those were usually taken up by Slytherins. Why James would be visiting with the likes of Crabbe, Goyle and Parkinson, she had no idea. But then it hit her.

_Pranks_, she thought sourly, and resigned herself to rolling her eyes, turning around, and trying to forget that James was on her tail at all.

This, unfortunately, turned out to be far too strenuous a task for her to handle. The effort required to tune him out was vast; his feet scuffed loudly against the carpeted corridor with ever step he took (as if Lily were walking too slowly for his liking) and he emitted a phony cough or sigh every now and then - he even began to whistle a ridiculous tune as they passed through the first Slytherin carriage, as if his other gratuitous noises weren't pissing her off enough.

Finally, Lily snapped. Rounding on him once more, her eyes were wild with anger as she burst out, "Alright, enough!" Nearby, a compartment door was slammed at the sound of her raised voice. She ignored it. "Is it your personal mission in life to be an annoying prat? Is that why you're following me?"

James held his hands up, looking defensive and a little amused. "Whoa—following you? Who said I was following you?"

"Oh, come on, why else would you be down this end of the train? Visiting your Slytherin buddies, I suppose?"

He gave a shrug and a sheepish grin; Lily glared.

"Go away, Potter. I don't have time for this."

James, with his hands stuffed into his pockets, actually looked somewhat nervous as he uttered his next words. "Actually, Evans, believe it or not, I have business to attend to as well. See—"

"I don't care, Potter! Stuffing dungbombs in compartments, blowing up people's luggage, chucking first years out the windows—whatever it is you're up to, it does _not_ count as business. So please, just leave me alone, because I, for one, actually have something important to do."

With that, she turned on her heel and stormed off down the corridor. She had to shove her way through a cluster of jeering Slytherins who were gathered pointlessly in the aisle and refused to budge even an inch, but with perseverance—and much use of her bony elbows—she finally made it to the first carriage. Here, she located the compartment she was looking for (she could hear McGonagall's and Dumbledore's voices drifting out of it already), took a few deep, calming breaths, and stepped forward to knock gently on the partially-open door.

The Headmaster and the Deputy looked up. Before anybody could utter a word, however, somebody sprinted up behind Lily and slid into place beside her, grasping the door frame. Lily tensed up for a second, thinking it was probably the newly appointed Head Boy arriving for the meeting; upon glancing up at his face, however, she realised it was just James.

"You again?" she barked, momentarily forgetting that she was in the presence of Hogwarts' two most authoritative figures. "I told you to lay off, Potter, this is import—"

But he barely seemed to notice her at all. "Sorry I'm late, Professor Dumbledore, Professor McGonagall," he said with uncharacteristic decorum, ignoring Lily altogether. "I tried to get here as soon as I got the letter, but I ran into a bit of, er... trouble in the hallway..."

Lily, still frozen midsentence, arched an eyebrow and gawked at him. What the hell did he think he was doing? Why did _he_ get a letter? Why was _he_ here, in _her _meeting, acting like it was all about _him_?

And then it clicked, and she gasped.

"No," she said, beginning to back into the compartment, taking as many steps away from him as the small space would allow. "No, no, no, no, NO! This cannot be happening. _You're_ Head Boy?"

James, who looked amused at her outburst, glanced quickly over at the teachers before returning his attention to Lily. Stuffing his hands into his pockets, he said, "Yeah, I am. So glad you approve, too."

Lily couldn't bring herself to speak. This scenario was beginning to bear a frightening resemblance to Jamie's reaction earlier, in the Rogues' compartment—"Head Girl?" she'd exclaimed; "_You're_ Head Girl?" And then the others had managed to assuage her disappointment, cheer her up little by little until the incident with Frank had caused her to forget the whole thing. This, however, was different. Here, Lily had an extremely valid reason to be upset—outraged, even. Never in her wildest dreams would she have imagined this to be within the realm of possibility. James Potter. She was going to have to work with _James_ _Potter_, the embodiment of all things evil; there would be no cheering up after this. Any hope she might have had left of having an enjoyable year promptly vanished into thin air. Before, with the Marauders, that had been a strange, fuzzy dream, but this...

This was a nightmare.

"I'm sorry," said Lily blandly, turning to the professors, "but I can't work with him. This is a recipe for disaster - you must know that!" She knew she was being rude, but the anger that had risen within her was hard to contain—and honestly, they ought to have known better. They'd have to have been blind not to see the animosity between Lily and James in their past six years at Hogwarts, and if they had any trace of sanity left in them (Dumbledore she doubted, but McGonagall, she thought, had always been very, very grounded) they would be aware that as much as placing the two of them in the same room together would result in boiling tempers, shouting matches, and possible explosions.

But no, they seemed to have forgotten all this, for they were asking them not only to be in the same room as one another, but to _cooperate_. And that—that was completely and utterly out of the question.

Presently, both Dumbledore and McGonagall had their eyes on Lily, and it was only now that she began to realise what a fool she was making of herself. The Headmaster was wearing his usual knowing smile, his blue eyes twinkling with amusement; it was almost as if he had concocted this plan solely for entertainment purposes—never mind the safety of Hogwarts or anything. McGonagall, however, had her lips pressed together in a thin line and was watching Lily with wide eyes that betrayed a hint of something like worry. "_Hogwarts is doomed_," her look seemed to say. Well, at least one of them had some sense. Not that it did her much good when kooky old Dumbledore had the final say in official matters like this.

"Miss Evans," said the man who had just robbed her of any chance at happiness in life, looking at her curiously over his half moon glasses, "I assure you, the selection was a most judicious process. I must admit, there was some... disagreement as to whether this was a suitable pairing, but after much deliberation, it was decided that you and Mr Potter would make a fine team—you complement each other nicely, and once you manage to set your differences aside, we believe you two have the potential to work marvellously together."

Judging by the look on McGonagall's face, "we" didn't mean the staff as a whole—in fact, where this batty decision was concerned, "we" probably referred only to Dumbledore himself. The thought of "disagreement" among the staff added to Lily's apprehension. She hated to disrespect somebody as wise and as kind-hearted as Dumbledore, but he had to be completely out of his mind. Could he even hear himself speaking? Did he _really_ think that was valid justification for creating what Lily could only think to call the Demonic Duo?

Lily was speechless, numb. This was all too baffling to handle.

"Please, Miss Evans, Mr Potter—sit down," said the Headmaster kindly, gesturing at the empty seats across from him and McGonagall.

This compartment was larger than those which accommodated the students; it had the same depth, but was longer, more drawn out, with seating on either side of the door in addition to that against the dividing walls. There were plenty of places Lily could have sat down, many of which would put her far away from James (or, well, far enough for her to calm down just a little). Dumbledore, however, was pointing to the seats directly in front of him, which meant they would be stuck only inches apart. Oh, joy.

Lily chanced one more look up at James. She expected him to be wearing that haughty smirk of his, taking full advantage of this moment of triumph and revelling in her misfortune—but instead, he'd adopted a completely professional stance as he nodded at Dumbledore. He even looked a little... nervous.

Wait—nervous? That was impossible. Marauders never showed signs of nerves or weakness; it was part of their code or something. Come to think of it, though... Could that be why he'd been so jittery earlier, in the hall, with his whistling and foot-shuffling and general annoyingness?

James, noticing her curious stare, cleared his throat, offered a tiny smile, gestured at the empty seats and said, "After you."

Lily would have liked to say something nasty in response instead of just going along with his display of gallantry (which, obviously, was just his way of sucking up to the teachers), but she was still too flummoxed by everything that was happening to do any more than slide into the seat he had offered and stare down at her knees. Besides, she'd already given the professors one childish spectacle to disapprove of—staging another would just be begging them to take her badge away.

"Before we begin, I would like to congratulate you both on being selected. It is a most wonderful achievement to have been awarded these positions, and I am sure Minerva here is very proud to have two students from her very own house sitting before her today."

That was funny, Lily thought. McGonagall didn't look proud. She looked like she'd swallowed a bullfrog.

"Let's get down to business, shall we?" Dumbledore carried on. "Now, as I'm sure you both know, once we arrive at Hogwarts, you will be required to wear your badges at all times."

Lily gave herself a mental kick. She'd been so blown away by the concept of being Head Girl that she hadn't been quite ready to put on the badge just yet, but now that she thought about it, it probably would have made a good impression to do so. James, she was relieved to note, wasn't wearing his either. He'd probably meant to keep the secret from her as long as possible just for dramatic effect (and, if that had been his intention, then he'd definitely succeeded).

"Another thing that you will also be aware of," continued Dumbledore, "is that these badges bestow upon you both great responsibility. As Head Boy and Head Girl, it is your duty to keep the students of Hogwarts in order at all times—to watch over them, to direct them, to offer assistance wherever it may be required, and, to some extent, to punish rule-breakers. Miss Evans, as Prefect in previous years, you will have had experience with the point system. Mr Potter, you have not—but I assure you, it is very simple. Now, there are several specific duties which Minerva will explain to you, but in the grand scheme of things, you are the student figureheads for the school, and perhaps your most important obligation is to act as role models—it is the pair of you whom the younger students will look up to, so treat this responsibility with utmost care."

Her worst fears were being confirmed—Potter, a figurehead. Potter, training the younger students to act just like him. Potter, raising an army of little mini-Potters to take over the school. The mere notion was frightening; Hogwarts really _was_ doomed.

* * *

Jamie glanced at her golden watch. "I'd better go," she said, and stood up.

"You do that, Prefect Girl," said Hannah distractedly. She was in the midst of sorting through a rather large pile of chocolate frog cards on the seat beside her.

Regan stood up and offered a military-style salute as Jamie made her way out the door. Hannah kicked her in the leg and she doubled over, shouting in protest.

Jamie paused in the doorway, sighed, and offered a few final words. "See you, guys. I'll bring you back a souvenir from the Land of Responsibility."

When the door was closed behind her, Regan righted herself and turned around, falling into the seat opposite Hannah. "Never heard of that place," she mumbled, rubbing the back of her leg.

"No, me neither," said Hannah. She gathered up the cards and began to pile them methodically back into a wooden box with intricate carvings on its sides. Courtesy of Lily, it had been magically enhanced to hold far more than it appeared—which was fortunate, because otherwise, Regan and Hannah's massive chocolate frog card collection would never have fit inside. "Four hundred and seventy nine," she announced as she replaced the lid.

Unexpectedly, the door flew open and a mocking voice burst into the compartment. "Been at the scales again, have you?"

They didn't need to look up at the door to know who had spoken these words, but all the same, both girls' heads snapped up in semi-surprise. Sirius Black came barging into the compartment, completely uninvited, his handsome features arranged into a look of casual mocking. Trailing behind him was Peter, who had his eyes cast timidly at the ground, but kept on twitching and stealing excited glances at Regan.

Hannah glanced up from the wooden box to glare at Sirius, but kept her mouth shut.

"I mean, no offense or anything," Sirius went on, "but four hundred? Even Pete doesn't weigh that much."

Peter didn't even bother to defend himself at this; he was too fixated on Regan, who had caught on to his staring and was casting him a rather unpleasant "I'm onto you, and I'm going to beat you up" sort of look. He didn't seem to be able to identify this as a threat, however, and continued to gaze adoringly at her.

Turning her gaze away from Sirius and feigning indifference, Hannah picked up the box of chocolate frog cards and stood up to stow them back inside her trunk, which still sat on the compartment floor. "What are you doing here, Black?" she said coldly, without looking at him. "I thought we'd agreed on a truce."

"Ah, yes," said Sirius, "but the rule was 'no _pranks_'—and that doesn't stop me from pestering my least favourite Rogue every now and then, does it?" As if in an attempt to make himself even more annoying, he slumped down onto the seat Hannah had vacated and helped himself to a bag of Every Flavor Beans.

Without missing a beat, Hannah snatched it away from him and shot a swift kick at his leg, causing him to curse and jump up in surprise. Once he was on his feet and had gathered his bearings, he turned to Hannah and merely looked amused. "Easy, Milton," he said. "Just because you've got legs the size of tree stumps doesn't mean you have to go all Whomping Willow on me."

The fire in Hannah's eyes was alight now, and she inched forward, standing up to her full height—which was, admittedly, not very high at all—to address Sirius with her arms folded across her chest. "Just because you look like a troll doesn't mean you have to come in here and burn our eyes out with that face of yours whenever you feel like it."

"Ooooh," said Regan, as Sirius's features became momentarily dark. "She got you there, Black."

Apparently, he wasn't willing to be shot down quite so easily. "Well, actually," he said in a very matter-of-fact tone, "I didn't really _want_ to come here. You know I'd never come within ten feet of you unless there were dungbombs or explosions involved."

That was completely true, but it still made Hannah clench her fists up. Regan, remaining somewhat calm, narrowed her eyes and tilted her head slightly in question. "Oh yeah? So then why _are_ you here, you idiot?"

Sirius jerked a thumb toward Peter, who still looked quite dazed and didn't seem to notice all the attention shifting onto him at once.

Regan scoffed. "You? What do _you_ want with us, Wormbutt?" She fixed him with a condescending stare.

Peter looked up in alarm, and his face quickly turned as scarlet as the trim of his robes. He dropped his gaze to his hands—which he was wringing in an utterly pathetic gesture—and then looked bashfully back at up at her. "I... er, wanted to borrow a quill," he put forward stupidly, his eyes shifting nervously back and forth from Regan's face to the window, as if he were frightened to look into her eyes for too long. Indeed, Regan did look rather intimidating with her raised eyebrows, her set jaw and the way she stood semi-casually with one hand on her hip, challenging him to say something that was worth her time. When all he had to offer was the dumb quill excuse, she let out a short bark of laughter, which caused Peter to jump back a few feet in shock.

"A quill?" she said. "Right... So you expect me to believe that none of you four brought a single quill with you for the entire year? Nice try, Wormbutt, but even _I'm_ more prepared than that."

It didn't seem possible that Peter's face could go any redder than it already was, but in that moment, it did. His eyes fell to the floor in humiliation.

Sirius snorted. "Told you it was lame, Pete." He half-turned toward the door. "These two are boring; let's go."

"Wait!" said Peter desperately. He looked at Regan again, apparently going for take two. "Er... I... er... Can I borrow two sickles?"

"GET OUT!" Regan snapped, throwing an arm out forcefully toward the door. Peter jumped higher than ever, and was out of the compartment in a heartbeat. "And prepare your damn excuses next time you want to stalk me, Wormbrain!"

There was a terrified squeak from further down the corridor. Sirius, looking entertained, took this as his cue to leave. "So long, Rags," he said—as always, going to great—and completely futile—lengths in order to mispronounce their team name. "I'm off. Even our empty compartment is more interesting than you lot."

Hannah's curiosity took over, and in spite of herself she inquired, "Empty? What the hell are the rest of you up to? Found some new victims now that you can't prank us anymore?"

"Hardly," said Sirius, and from the bitter edge in his voice it was evident that he'd already pushed that case with the Marauders, and failed. "Off being nerds, attending to some 'official business'."

"So Remus _did_ get Head Boy, then?" Regan deduced.

"No," said Sirius, and the corners of his lips twitched up mischievously, as if he were about to impart some big, scandalous piece of gossip; "James did."

* * *

"And finally," McGonagall concluded, "since we have an unusually large number of first years starting this year at Hogwarts, Hagrid will require your assistance in escorting them across the Black Lake. Upon disembarking the train you will each be assigned to a boat, and it is your duty to supervise the new arrivals and make sure nothing goes wrong." She gave them both an exceptionally stern look that Lily suspected wasn't part of the regular protocol in relaying these details, but more of a warning specifically targeted at them. "Consider it a practice run."

Just then, there was a loud and rather discourteous knock on the door.

"Come in," said Dumbledore.

The door slid open to reveal a small gathering of Prefects outside; at the front of the group was Paul Abbott, and Lily thought she spotted Jamie a few people back. Evidently, ten minutes had elapsed since the commencement of this dreadful meeting. Strange, Lily thought—it had seemed more like ten years.

"Ah, Mr Abbott," said Dumbledore calmly. "Your timing is impeccable. I believe Minerva was just finishing up with our Head Boy and Girl here. Please, come in."

Paul gave a lazy grin and shuffled into the compartment with the others in tow: Magnolia Fairwater, the other Hufflepuff; Ian Corner and Alora Boot, both of Ravenclaw; Jamie Love and Remus Lupin of Gryffindor; and finally, Theodore Nott and Kristen Parkinson, the Slytherin Prefects.

The compartment became considerably more packed, but it was a relief to be surrounded by others (besides James Potter and two people she felt she had to continually impress), even if some of them were people she didn't particularly like. With Lily crammed into the corner and James right beside her, Jamie was unable to sit very close by, so she opted for a seat by the door.

"Miss Love." Dumbledore addressed Jamie just as she sat down, causing her to look up in alarm. Lily knew she must feel uncomfortable under his gaze; after all, Jamie couldn't stand being singled out, especially in such a large group. "It is nice to see a fresh face in this meeting. I must tell you, when Miss Evans was made Head Girl, we considered leaving her spot vacated as per the usual practice; however, I always thought you would make a lovely Prefect, and it only seemed fitting to fill the position when we have so many new students arriving at school, all of whom will, no doubt, require assistance from people as mature and experienced as you all... I assume you are comfortable with this?"

With all this attention focused on her, Jamie was quickly becoming very pink. She gave a stiff, hurried nod and shifted her gaze to her lap. Dumbledore moved on.

Lily barely listened to a word he or McGonagall said after that. Squashed into the side of the train, she suddenly became all too aware of just how much of her body was touching James; her shoulder, part of her forearm and the whole of her thigh were all pressed into the side of him, and although he was looking in the other direction and didn't appear to be bothered by it at all, she couldn't help but feel a little self-conscious.

The minutes ticked by very slowly, Dumbledore and McGonagall taking turns giving them lectures, all the Prefects—save for a few, like Abbott and Nott—listening intently, Lily barely breathing at all where she sat in the corner. At one point, she caught Jamie's eye across the compartment, and she was only a little surprised to see her eyes wide and frightened, shifting to James and back to Lily as if asking, "Is this for real?" Lily shrugged and shot back a look to say, "We'll talk later—and boy, do we have a lot to talk about." Unfortunately, the gentle rise and fall of her shoulders caused James to turn ever so slightly in her direction, and she quickly shoved herself as far as she could into the side of the train. This proved to be a bad idea; there was very little space left, and so she bounced right off the wall and back into James, ending up closer than she had been to begin with. Her cheeks grew warm as she attempted to right herself; she could practically _feel_ him smirking.

Finally, the meeting drew to a close and all were dismissed. Lily kept her head down and pointedly avoided James as she exited the compartment, but once she was on her way down the aisle, back to the Rogues' compartment, she felt Jamie fall into step beside her. There were so many unspoken questions between them—_How? Why? Who, in their right mind__?_ —but neither of them said anything until they were safely back with the others, with a closed door and a paper-thin wall between them and the forces of Evil. At this point, Lily let out a monstrous "Argh!" and threw herself onto a seat in the far corner, curling up into a ball and hiding from the world.

She expected immediate questioning from Hannah and Regan, but instead there was silence and a comforting hand on her back.

"You wouldn't believe it...," Jamie started, but Hannah cut in before she could elaborate.

"Oh, we heard," she said very seriously, "but you're right—we _still_ can't believe it."

"You've got to hand it to Dumbledore," Regan said drily. "Totally unpredictable."

"Totally _ridiculous_, more like," said Lily, lifting her head to look at them all with wild eyes. "What am I supposed to _do?_ I can't work with him! He's going to drive me completely up the wall—it'll be a wonder if I have any sanity left by the end of the year. I'm probably going to fail my NEWTs by that point, if I've spent that much time with James sodding Potter." She was being overdramatic, she knew, but she couldn't help it. Seventh year had just gotten a whole lot worse, and it hadn't even started yet.

They felt the train beginning to slow just then, and the feeling of dread settled further into Lily's stomach. The others didn't have any consoling words for her; clearly, they couldn't come up with any positives either. Even the prospect of the feast, of seeing everybody again, of the excitement of the Sorting, did little to cheer her up. All she wanted to do was fall into the pillows of her heavenly four-poster in the Gryffindor Tower and never wake up again.

This was going to be the worst year ever.

* * *

**A/N:** Yes, so it's just a _tad_ longer than the original version... but since most of you have said you prefer the longer chapters anyway, I figured it couldn't hurt.  
Also, I know it wasn't a particularly interesting chapter, but I've found that in most stories I write, Chapter Three ends up taking the brunt of all the introductions/set-up/foreshadowing/official business and dull stuff like that. So I guess TMATR is just keeping in line with tradition.  
Anyway, you know the deal: love it, hate it, couldn't care less about it—no matter your opinion, I'd love to hear it. So drop a review if you haven't already, and tell me what you think. :)

Thanks for reading!

~PrincessEarth

[NOTE: A revamped version of Chapter Four is in the works, but be patient. It's going to be BIG, and those kinds of chapters take a lot of work. For now, you're stuck with the crappy flashback I wrote when I was fourteen. Sorry. :P]


	4. A Blast from the Past

**Plot:** The infamous Marauders weren't alone in their love for pranking. In fact, they often had their butts kicked by a bunch of girls. Now, this is it. Seventh year. Four girls, four boys. Two opposing pranking teams. One hell of a battle to be won.

**Disclaimer:** Sad as it may be, I am not J.K. Rowling in disguise, and therefore I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters or themes involved. (I do, however, own Jamie, Hannah and Regan and most elements of this specific plot—so I'd appreciate it if no poaching occurred. Thanks.)

**WARNING (please read): **This is the unedited version, meaning I wrote it a few years ago when my skill level sucked and I had no idea how to properly structure a story. So if you'll please ignore the terrible grammar, dodgy sentence structure, OOC-ness, plot holes, canonical inconsistencies and general immaturity of this whole chapter while I plough my way through all this editing work, that would be greatly appreciated. :) I'm in the process of fixing up all the chapters right now, but you'll have to be patient, because (as you can probably tell just by reading a couple of sentences below) fixing this stuff up takes a lot of time and effort.  
Note: For this chapter in particular, a full rewrite is scheduled. I hate to change things around so much, but I felt like the Marauders and the Rogues needed a more solid, believable history... So I'm working on that now. Stay tuned for some epicness. ;)

* * *

**Chapter 4 - A Blast from the Past**

"First years over here!"

At the beginning of any normal year at Hogwarts, the booming voice of the school's cheerful gamekeeper would symbolize a whole lot of good things for Lily; a new year, new friendships, more time to impress the teachers with her academic skills and most importantly, many more chances to hijack the Marauders. But this time round, Lily could not help but dread the treacherous ten months that lay ahead of her. All that filled her mind were thoughts of excessive homework, career-making-or-breaking NEWTs and of course, the prospect of working alongside her worst enemy.

Her mind was bombarded with curiosity as she considered another aspect of her final year at Hogwarts: the year-long finale of the great practical joke war between the Marauders and the Rogues. Things could definitely get messy. But Lily was prepared for a fight, and that was exactly what she was going to give.

Lily walked over to the edge of the lake, aware that her Head's Duties meant she would have to travel by boat to the castle, accompanying the first years and helping Hagrid to keep them under control. James, she was surprised to find, was already standing by the water, ushering tiny first years into the wooden boats that were floating at the edge of the dock. She bit her lip in confusion; James definitely wasn't being his normal self today. Although he had played a part in their malicious practical jokes, this had been expected from all four of the Marauders - and besides, James had seemed quite willing to bring things to a truce. In sixth year or any time before, something like this would have been completely unheard of. And while the previous year, James had spent the majority of his time pestering Lily and trying to get a 'yes' out of while he continued to ask her out, so far, he had not approached her at all for any business other than the Marauder-Rogue war.

"Lily," Hagrid said jovially, and before she knew it, Lily was being squashed into a hug by what seemed like an overweight bear. "Yeh're 'ead girl I guess?"

Lily smiled at the familiar face in front of her. "Yep," she replied.

"I s'pose yeh're not too 'appy about Potter over there, eh?"

_No! Could Dumbledore have picked a more horrible, pig-headed idiot for Head Boy?_ "I'll survive," Lily managed to say, despite the rude remarks she had quite reluctantly refrained from letting slip.

"That's the spirit!" Hagrid said rather loudly, patting her on the back with a hand the size of a dinner plate. Lily tried to smile despite the pain that was shooting up her spine. "Now, we'd better ge' movin' on these first years,"

Lily walked out onto the dock, rubbing her back, and found a clutter of first years chatting excitedly among themselves.

"I'm gonna be in Gryffindor," one boy said proudly.

"Nuh-uh! I bet you'll be in _Hufflepuff_," another shot malevolently at him.

"Hey!" a small girl frowned and put both hands on her hips. "My parents were both in Hufflepuff,"

Lily grinned at the scene in front of her, remembering with fondness her first day at Hogwarts. Of course, her memories of this day were not only filled with warmth and familiarity, but also with a huge amount of hatred - for the first day at Hogwarts had also been the day when the Marauders and the Rogues had turned against each other for good.

_It was a familiar scene, beginning on the train as most of the other beginning-of-year events that she remembered tended to. Lily sat alone in a compartment, kneeling on the seat as she stared out the window at her mother and father on the platform. It had all been so new to her, and she didn't understand a thing. Her hands were pressed to the glass as she yelled to her parents._

_"Don't make me go!" she pleaded desperately._

_"It'll be fun," she had barely heard her father reply. "Do you know any other kids who get to go to a school to learn how to use magic?"_

_Lily had been silent for a moment. "No," she said, and slumped back down onto the seat. She had still been quite shocked at the prospect of going to a faraway school to be taught such things, but the idea was beginning to excite her._

_She had gazed back longingly at her parents as the train pulled out. They smiled proudly and waved at her as they disappeared from her view. It was at that very moment that the door had slid open, startling Lily and causing her to jump out of her seat. A very small girl with pretty blue eyes and a nervous smile on her round face stepped in, looking utterly frightened._

_"Um," she had said in a soft voice. "Is there any room in here?"_

_"Yeah," Lily said, smiling. "There's plenty,"_

_"Thanks," _

_"My name's Lily, by the way," _

_"I'm Jamie,"_

_The pair had sat awkwardly for a little while, but after Lily got a conversation going, they had spoken for the first half-hour of the train ride. Jamie was a half-blood witch, she had found out - her mother was a Muggle, while her father was a pure blood wizard. Lily remembered finding Jamie's stories much more interesting than her own, for this girl had a background like no other - she had traveled all over the world with her parents, visiting magical communities in places Lily had only dreamed of. But this was only the beginning of Lily's mesmerizing day. _

_About forty-five minutes into the trip, the soon-to-be familiar voice of the trolley lady had rung out through the train, startling Lily a little._

_"Do you want to go and get something?" Jamie had asked somewhat timidly. Lily, of course, had only a vague idea what she was talking about._

_"Sure, I guess," she had shrugged, and the pair had wandered awkwardly out into the corridor to find the woman pushing a trolley laden with sweets. Lily's eyes had lit up at the sight of it all, but it was with great disappointment that she said to her newfound friend, "Sorry, I can't. I haven't got much money with me, and I probably shouldn't spend it now,"_

_At that moment, another voice popped into the conversation. "I'll pay if you like," Lily had looked up, confused, only to see a bouncy blonde girl smiling at her through wide sapphire eyes. Next to her was a girl with darker hair and freckles covering her mischievous face. _

_"Are... are you sure?" Lily had inquired._

_"Absolutely," the girl had said jubilantly. "I'm Hannah, by the way,"_

_Before Lily could reply, the other girl cut in sarcastically._

_"Hannah, you know your mom told you not to talk to strangers,"_

_"Well if I'd ever decided to obey that rule, how would I have met you, Regan?"_

_"Okay, okay,"_

_Five minutes later, the four girls had gathered in Lily and Jamie's compartment, chattering excitedly with each other and giggling as they enjoyed piles of licorice wands, pumpkin pasties, chocolate frogs and every-flavoured beans. They talked on and on about many things, including their expectations of the school. _

_"I want to be in Gryffindor," Hannah had said happily, holding a hand to her heart in mock-pride. _

_"I'll be fine as long as they don't throw me in that dump Slytherin," said Regan quite darkly. _

_Suddenly, the compartment door had slid open, revealing a tall boy with glasses and messy hair of jet black. Lily had stared at the new arrival, wondering why on earth he was entering a compartment full of girls. He appeared to be a bit nervous, and somehow, a little bemused as he stood there. _

_"Um," he started, and cleared his throat. "I hope you don't mind me sitting in here for a while. That old hag of a teacher down there just kicked me out of my compartment and told me to come here,"_

_Lily had frozen. She didn't have anything against the boy - at the time - but all the same, she wasn't sure she was entirely comfortable with the idea of him staying in their compartment. But before Lily had had a chance to react, Hannah had replied enthusiastically without another thought, it seemed. "Sure!" she said. _

_"Thanks," the boy had replied. Lily had hoped he would take a seat on the other side next to Hannah, but unfortunately, moments before, Jamie had sat down in the empty seat. Regan, who was standing while she fiddled with something in her bag on the overhead shelf, had vacated the spot next to Lily, leaving it free for the boy to sit down. Much to Lily's horror, he took the bait, and sat down only inches from her. Lily heard a few quiet snickers from the others, but a dark look from her made them fall silent before returning to their own conversation. Unfortunately, this left Lily to keep the boy entertained. _

_"I'm James, by the way," he had said to her._

_"Lily," she gave him a small smile._

_"That's a pretty name,"_

_"Um... thanks," Lily had been surprised at how smoothly it had gone so far._

_"So long have you known these three?" James inquired, indicating Jamie and the others. _

"_Oh, not long," Lily had shaken her head. "I only met them about an hour ago,"_

"_I see,"_

"_What about you? I mean, have you met any new friends yet?" She had felt stupid at the time for asking such a question. Of course he had friends - if he was the rebellious person he had claimed to be (having been kicked out of his compartment and all) then he certainly wouldn't be a loner._

"_Not yet," James said, and Lily was shell-shocked until he added: "Well, I've mostly been sticking with a few of my old pals so far,"_

_"Oh, okay,"_

_There had been complete silence while Lily had tried to figure out what to say next and James had simply been sitting there, staring at her with his knowing hazel eyes. _

_"I'd better go check on my friends," James suddenly said. "In case they've gotten into any trouble. See you at school, I guess,"_

_Lily smiled warmly. "See you," she replied._

_"Try and get into Gryffindor, will you?"_

_"Um... I'll try,"_

_James had spared her a final wave before walking out the door. Lily returned it with a smile, and then turned around, only to realize that Hannah, Jamie and Regan had fallen silent. _

_"Well?" Regan had urged. "Would you care to explain?"_

_"What do you mean?" Lily raised her eyebrows. _

_"Is this _James_ guy your new boyfriend or what?"_

_"Hey!" Lily had said defensively. "Of course not! He's just nice, that's all!"_

_"If you say so..." Regan concluded, triggering a few quiet giggles from the other two. _

_Lily folded her arms and turned away from them all, frustrated with their stubbornness. It was at that moment that Lily had heard it - a faint whisper drifting through the train wall. Lily froze and strained her ears in attempt to hear it more clearly. _

_"What is it?" Hannah had asked. _

_"Shh!" Lily put a finger to her lips. "Can you hear that?" She had pressed her ear up to the wall, and all at once, the voices had become loud and clear._

_"How good was that?" she recognized the voice of James. Lily was confused at this, and continued to listen in for more details. _

_"That was awesome, Prongs!" a slightly deeper voice had remarked enthusiastically. "You'll have her going out with you by tomorrow, I'll bet!"_

_She had gasped when she realized that the _her_ they were talking about was, in fact, Lily herself. What was going on? Had James' kindness simply been an act to get her to warm up to him? It was so appauling that Lily had wanted to throw up. _

_"Who wants to be dared next?" James had said excitedly. "Moony, I think it's about time you had your turn,"_

_"No way!" said a rough male voice. _

_"Fine," James said. "You have a go, Padfoot,"_

_What intrigued Lily even more than the strange names they were using was the fact that they seemed to be playing some kind of game. With _Padfoot_'s next words, understanding dawned upon her all at once._

_"Alright," he had said quite willingly. "Who should I go for?"_

_"I'd suggest the blonde one," James replied. "She's the one who let me in real easily,"_

_Hannah, who by now was leaning up against the wall as well and was listening intently to the boys' conversation, had expelled an enormous gasp at this. Lily had watched her expression turn to one of horror as she continued to listen. _

_"Ooh, blonde? That one's gotta be a good catch,"_

_Lily had pulled her head away from the wall in utter annoyance at his comment and turned to her new friends with a frustrated scowl on her face. "That's it," she had said. "We're going over there,"_

_And so the four of them had marched over to the compartment to the right of theirs, and, not even bothering to knock on the door, burst in angrily. Lily had noted the expressions of shock on what she now realized were, in fact, _four_ boys' faces as they entered, fuming. _

_"Look," Lily had said angrily. "I don't know what kind of sick game you're playing, but please, just keep _us_ out of it!"_

_"What?" James had said, his eyes wide. "I don't know what you're talking abo-"_

_"Save it, buster!" Hannah had said, stepping forward and glaring at him. Then she turned to the other three of them. "And whichever one of you called me a _'good catch'_ is going to have THIS to answer to," she lifted a tiny fist into the air as she stared at each of the boys. This gesture was only met with a loud laugh from a tall boy with shaggy hair. "I take it it was you?" Hannah said darkly, turning to him. The boy had smirked. _

_"So what if it was, huh?" he had said defiantly. "What's your little fist going to do, give me a bruise the size of a pinhead?"_

_Hannah had stepped back, evidently embarrassed by his comment._

_"Anyway, we didn't mean anything by it," James had said rather calmly. "So you can all go back to whatever it was you were doing,"_

_"You didn't mean anything by it?" Lily had said, enraged. "You think that you can play some kind of... flirtatious dare game on us and just walk away?"_

"_Hey, you don't even know what we were up to," James had defended himself. "So how can you have any idea what we meant by it?"_

"_The walls are paper thin, for your information," Lily shot back at him. _

"_Well it's not like you can read our minds or anything," the other boy said. _

_Within moments, the eight of them were arguing with full force, shouting rude comments as the groups tried to outdo one another. The fight went on and on, until finally, they had all turned their backs on each other. By this point, Lily was raging, and tried hard to calm herself down. _

"_Would you four care to leave?" The shaggy-haired boy had darkly said. "You're in our compartment, you know,"_

"_We're aware of that, thank you," Regan had replied, matching his tone. "And don't worry, we're on our way,"_

And it was that incident alone that had triggered their ongoing feud, all of the spite and hatred that had hung between them for so many years, and the endless practical joke war that seemed to be their way of seeking revenge on one another. Lily wondered if things would have turned out differently, had they not gotten involved in that argument. Perhaps they may have, but Lily strongly doubted it. The truth was, they would have found something to disagree on, no matter how hard they tried to play nice. The groups just didn't click - that was a solid fact.

What if they had made an attempt at reconciliation? Lily pondered the idea. This might have changed things, if they had given it a shot. But they never really got a chance to try and cooperate, for only hours after the train ride, the girls had officially declared themselves the Rogues, taken a blood oath, and dedicated themselves to hating the Marauders.

Lily sighed as she dragged herself back to reality and began to direct the first years into the wooden boats. Still, she managed to contemplate the concept of James' changed personality. It simply wasn't possible for him to be mature, she tried to tell herself. But no matter how long she thought about it, her mind still kept on coming back around to the same conclusion - _people change_, she thought. _And right now, it seems as though James has changed an awful lot_.

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As I said, the whole explanation part isn't the greatest, but I plan to build on it throughout the story. I hope you all enjoyed it! Reviews are very much appreciated :)


	5. Home, Sweet Home

**Plot:** The infamous Marauders weren't alone in their love for pranking. In fact, they often had their butts kicked by a bunch of girls. Now, this is it. Seventh year. Four girls, four boys. Two opposing pranking teams. One hell of a battle to be won.

**Disclaimer:** Sad as it may be, I am not J.K. Rowling in disguise, and therefore I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters or themes involved. (I do, however, own Jamie, Hannah and Regan and most elements of this specific plot—so I'd appreciate it if no poaching occurred. Thanks.)

**WARNING (please read): **This is the unedited version, meaning I wrote it a few years ago when my skill level sucked and I had no idea how to properly structure a story. So if you'll please ignore the terrible grammar, dodgy sentence structure, OOC-ness, plot holes, canonical inconsistencies and general immaturity of this whole chapter while I plough my way through all this editing work, that would be greatly appreciated. :) I'm in the process of fixing up all the chapters right now, but you'll have to be patient, because (as you can probably tell just by reading a couple of sentences below) fixing this stuff up takes a lot of time and effort.

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**Chapter 5 - Home Sweet Home**

Soft ripples slid across the water's gleaming surface, sending wavering streaks of light down the lake. Lily watched it, transfixed by the beauty. It was hard to think that in the depths of this body of water, dark creatures resided. But it was, in fact, true. The Black Lake was home to many a creature, some beautiful and kind, and others not so much that way.

But the water wasn't the only place that held dark creatures - in fact, there was one sitting in the boat across from Lily as both she and that creature accompanied the first years across the water. That creature, predictably, went by the name of James Potter. Lily watched him talking to a pair of boys who were leaning over the edge of the raft, and pointed his index finger at them, keeping a straight face all the while. For the millionth time that day, Lily was utterly perplexed by his behaviour. The James she knew would be joining in with the mischief in a second, even if it was a pair of rowdy first years.

"Oi, Lily!" he suddenly called out, causing her to jump. For a moment she wasn't sure that it was James who said it - being addressed by her surname was more common from him - but his somewhat sturdy eye contact with her was a good indicator that he was, in fact, speaking to her.

"What?" she replied, unsure of how to say it; she wasn't aware whether this was going to be a personal attack or a serious comment, so she tried to use a rather flat tone.

"There's a tree ahead. You might want to watch out for it," Lily looked to her right, and, sure enough, there was a tree a reasonable distance ahead of her.

"Thank you," Lily said drily. "But I don't need you to point it out, I'm quite aware of the fact that it's there,"

James shrugged and turned away.

"And since when do you issue friendly warnings?" Lily added.

Again, James simply shrugged. "I just thought you might like to know,"

Lily turned away to him and focused on the first years in her boat instead. Seated in the depth of the wooden boat were four young girls; one small and blonde, another a thin redhead, and the other two a little taller, both with darker hair. Lily smiled in reminiscence, reminded very much of herself and her friends at that age. The girls kept on exchanging rather cheeky smiles, as if planning something mischievous. She wondered if these girls had something of an arch enemy, like the Rogues had the Marauders.

Lily felt as though she should talk to the girls - after all, she _was_ supposed to be the figure of authority. So she said to them: "So are you four excited?"

"Yeah," said the blonde, a little timidly, still shooting glances at her friends.

Lily smiled. "What house do you reckon-"

_Clonk_. Something hit Lily in the shoulder with full force, violently throwing her off the edge of the boat where she was sitting and causing her to fall into the water with a splash. The cold bit at her skin immediately. She waved her arms about in attempt to resurface, and finally emerged, gasping for air and trying to become orientated again.

By the time Lily had gathered her bearings, the boats had moved a fair distance ahead of where she was floating. She swam quickly and at last managed to catch up with the boats, a little out of breath.

"Are you alright there?" Much to her horror, Lily had caught up with the wrong raft. She found James to be sitting in the boat in front of her, looking very much as though he would like to laugh. Lily scowled as he did let out a small laugh, and shot back:

"Not really. In case you hadn't noticed, I just fell into a freezing lake,"

"Well I _did_ warn you," James was smirking a little as he spoke.

Lily was fuming. Of course he had warned her, but she had been too busy defending her dignity to take any notice. This had, evidently, turned against her.

"Here," said James, holding out his hand.

"What?" Lily said angrily. "You think I'm going to accept help from _you_?" She wasn't so much irritated by the idea of receiving assistance from him, but nervous at the concept of holding his hand.

"Don't be so immature," James said rather seriously. Reluctantly, Lily propped one of her hands up on the edge of the boat and reached the other up to grasp James' outstretched one. It was rather warm compared to hers (this was understandable) and his grip was strong and sturdy. Anxious to get out of the cold water, Lily pulled herself upwards and leaned over the edge of the boat. Unfortunately, she overbalanced and toppled into the raft. She landed on something rather soft and looked up, horrified, to see that she was stretched out, laying almost entirely on top of James. She wriggled around as she dragged her body off if him and moved away.

"Um," she said, once she was seated on the other side of the boat between a couple of first years. "Thanks, I guess," then added, "But I don't need you to do me any more favours. I can take care of myself, thank you,"

"Whatever," James said in a dull monotone. Lily turned to face the other side of the lake. Opposite the raft in which she currently sat, she could see the boat containing the four young girls. Each one was staring directly at her and smirking while laughing quite rampantly.

So _that_ had been the reason for their mischievous grins! Lily suddenly realized with disgust. She shot them a dirty look as she thought of this. Of course, she figured, they had known that the tree was rapidly approaching, and yet they had done nothing but share impish looks and act as though nothing at all was going on. The _least _they could have done was say something to her, whether it was a simple 'look, a tree' or something of more assistance. Then again, Lily realized with a sigh, at that age, Lily and her friends would have taken great pleasure in watching the Head Girl take a dunk in the Black Lake.

A few moments later, the boats had arrived at the other side, and Lily had a clear view of the castle. It stood in all its magnificence in front of them with its solid grey stone walls, radiant embellishments on its towers and doors, and a warm yellow light shining in most windows. Lily breathed in the cold air and smiled; the Hogwarts castle was such a familiar thing, and it would be terrible to have to say goodbye to it at the end of the year.

Realizing that she was shivering, Lily wrapped her arms around her sodden cloak, her teeth chattering in the cold breeze. It was just her luck to fall into the water on a day like this - now, she would walk into her first day as Head Girl soaking wet, probably making Hogwarts history.

"You must be freezing," Lily whipped around at these words, only to find James standing right behind her, his expression unreadable.

"No, I'm fine," she said stubbornly, and turned away from him. At once, her teeth began to chatter and her body shook violently with cold, revealing to him that her words had, in fact, been a lie.

"No, you're not," James said with a small laugh. "Here, take this," he took off the outermost layer of his robes and handed it to her. Lily hesitated - but, giving into her desire for warmth, she decided that it would probably be best to accept the offer. She took it from his hands and wrapped it around herself, instantly feeling better, though a little cold still. There was excess fabric hanging over her hands and dragging along the ground, just going to show how much taller than her James really was.

"Thanks," she said quietly, and continued to walk, moving a small way ahead of him.

Lily's arrival in the Great Hall was met with a few gasps, some quiet laughs and many whispers. She blushed as she focused her attention on the back wall, trying hard not to make eye contact with any students. Finally, she found the rest of the Rogues near the front of the Gryffindor table.

"What happened to you?" Hannah cried upon her arrival.

"I fell in the lake," Lily admitted.

"How on _earth_ did that happen?" Regan asked, restraining herself from laughing.

"Ugh, don't ask,"

Lily shivered.

"Here," Jamie stepped out of her seat and drew her wand, aiming it at Lily and muttering the incantation: "_Secherium!_" At once, Lily felt her clothing and hair dry out, and the cold disappeared, replaced by a soothing sensation of warmth.

"What are you wearing?" Regan asked with distaste in her voice, taking in the oversized robe that Lily still had on.

Lily frowned and removed the garment, tossing it across the table to where James had sat down with the Marauders. "Here," she said simply, and turned back to her friends.

"Tut tut," Hannah said, pointing a scolding finger at Lily. "Since when are we accepting bribes from the enemy?"

"It wasn't a bribe," Lily pleaded with her. "I was freezing!"

"We'll let you off," Hannah concluded. "But just this once,"

The Headmaster's booming voice filled the hall suddenly, causing every student and teacher in the hall to turn their head towards him as he began to speak. "Friends," he said. "Welcome to another year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It gives me great pleasure to welcome every one of you to the school once again,"

Though his words were almost exactly the same as those he had recited at the previous feast, all of the students in the hall were gazing up at Dumbledore with transfixed eyes, strangely captivated by his voice.

"As some of you may know, our Head Students for this year are Mr. James Potter and Miss Lily Evans. Should you have any queries, I'm sure they will be willing to assist you. There is much more to say on this matter, but we must get on with the sorting,"

Professor McGonagall led a large gaggle of tiny first years out into the spacious area at the front of the Great Hall, between the teachers and the students who were already seated at the long tables. In the middle of the area was a very familiar object resting upon a wooden stool - the Sorting Hat, tall and wrinkled with a few patches here and there. Lily stared intently at the hat, waiting for the first student to sit down and put it on.

"Melman, Ernest," McGonagall stated, and a small boy with black hair stepped forward with a large smile, taking a seat on the edge of the stool. Lily could see his feet tapping the ground with excitement as the Professor placed the hat on his head. The hat said nothing for a moment, apparently deep in consideration, but finally opened its mouth and declared, "Gryffindor!"

Lily cheered with the others at her table as Ernest Melman took a seat. McGonagall proceeded to the following student without so much as a nod or a smile. "Keltica, Mina,"

Next to step up was a tiny, mousy girl with wide brown eyes. She appeared to be absolutely petrified as she sat down. Without hesitation, the hat shouted out: "Ravenclaw!" the girl gave a wide smile as she hurried out of the spotlight at sat down at the welcoming table of Ravenclaws.

McGonagall's eyes widened as she peered down at the list for a third time.

"Potter, Stephanie,"

The hall went silent. Lily's felt her heart slow down considerably. She turned and gave Jamie a look of complete shock, before returning her attention to the front of the Great Hall. How was it possible for James to have a sister without Lily having even the slightest idea? Of course, it wouldn't be normal if he had given away personal information to Lily without a completely reasonable cause - most likely related to some kind of prank or joke - but Lily strongly disliked being out of the know, especially when it came to important matters. And this was _definitely _an important matter.

Stephanie walked out and took a seat on the stool, and as she did, Lily craned her neck to get a good look at the girl. She was relatively pretty, with a straight, raven-black ponytail down to her mid-back, eyes of a similar soft hazel to James' and a pretty, shy face. She had a natural dark outline around her eyes and her lips were quite pink. It was a surprise that somebody so pretty and refined could be related to James Potter - it wasn't as though the boy wasn't good looking (Lily had never allowed herself to go too far along this train of thoughts), but the girl appeared very polished compared to the image of James with his messy hair, lanky figure and wild expressions.

"Did you know Potter had a sister?" Lily leaned over to Jamie and asked.

"How could I? The only civil conversation I've ever had with Potter was about a Potions book, and that was in Diagon Alley before I even knew who he was!"

Lily sighed. She glanced over at James, who sat on the edge of his seat, his eyes completely focused on his sister. His expression was one of severe anticipation, and Lily could see his fingers crossed underneath his long sleeves.

"Gryffindor!" yelled the hat.

Cheers erupted from the Gryffindor table, despite the momentary faltering that had occurred at the mention of the girl's name. James was standing up, clapping loudly and wearing a smile of extreme joy as Stephanie took her place at the Gryffindor table.

"Way to go, Steph!" he exclaimed.

About ten minutes later, all of the first years were sorted, and the feast had begun. Lily enjoyed roast chicken and mashed potatoes, as well as treacle tart and cream cakes among other decadent foods. She chatted eagerly with her friends and also exchanged conversation with some of the other Gryffindor students, including Frank Longbottom and Alice Hanby.

"Did you have a good holiday?" Alice asked politely, raising her small voice a little over the extreme noise level.

"It was alright," Lily replied. "I didn't do anything very exciting, though,"

"Oh," Alice looked disappointed at the lack of a good story. "That's too bad,"

"I'll live," Lily shrugged and returned to her dessert.

After another twenty minutes, Lily was on the way back up to the girls' dormitories with the rest of the Rogues. Her belly was full of delicious food, her heart full of excitement and her head filled with thoughts of all that had happened that day. A lot had occurred in only twenty four hours, Lily realized. Two pranks were just the beginning of the day's excitement - after that, there was the Heads' Meeting, the fall in the lake, and the discovery of James' sibling to throw in. Lily was still baffled by all this - she wanted to understand everything. But most of all she was tired, and wanted nothing more than to retire to the four-poster bed that awaited her in the dorms.

"_Blubber_," Lily muttered to the portrait of the Fat Lady as they reached the entrance. The frame swung forward, allowing them to pass through into the common room before shutting again.

"Who came up with such a ridiculous password?" Regan laughed.

"Do we know who comes up with _any_ of the passwords?" Hannah replied.

The girls trudged up to the dormitories silently, clearly all exhausted. The moment they reached the top of the staircase, Regan found her bed and collapsed limply onto the covers.

"Home sweet home," she said gleefully, and closed her eyes.

Lily walked over to her own bed, and, opening her trunk, retrieved her pyjamas from deep inside it. She pulled them on and slipped into bed with one final word to her friends, who were all getting ready to go to sleep as well. "Goodnight," she said with a yawn.

"'Night," Hannah replied. There were a few tired groans from Regan and Jamie, but nothing legible. Without another thought, Lily rolled over and fell asleep almost immediately. It had been a _very_ long day.

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I hope you liked it! You should be expecting an update fairly soon.


	6. Mummy's Boy

**Plot:** The infamous Marauders weren't alone in their love for pranking. In fact, they often had their butts kicked by a bunch of girls. Now, this is it. Seventh year. Four girls, four boys. Two opposing pranking teams. One hell of a battle to be won.

**Disclaimer:** Sad as it may be, I am not J.K. Rowling in disguise, and therefore I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters or themes involved. (I do, however, own Jamie, Hannah and Regan and most elements of this specific plot—so I'd appreciate it if no poaching occurred. Thanks.)

**WARNING (please read): **This is the unedited version, meaning I wrote it a few years ago when my skill level sucked and I had no idea how to properly structure a story. So if you'll please ignore the terrible grammar, dodgy sentence structure, OOC-ness, plot holes, canonical inconsistencies and general immaturity of this whole chapter while I plough my way through all this editing work, that would be greatly appreciated. :) I'm in the process of fixing up all the chapters right now, but you'll have to be patient, because (as you can probably tell just by reading a couple of sentences below) fixing this stuff up takes a lot of time and effort.

* * *

**Chapter 6 – Mummy's Boy**

"Wake up Lily!"

"Just one more minute…"

Lily groaned and rolled over, not entirely aware of her senses until her pillow was tugged straight out from underneath her and she received a heavy blow on the head. Groggily, she turned around and saw a frustrated Hannah standing next to her bed with a pillow in her hands. The girl was already dressed in her robes and her hair was tied neatly back into a ponytail. She looked just as bright as the morning with her eyes wide and her face twisted into a 'what-am-I-going-to-do-with-you' sort of smile.

"Honestly," Lily said in a tired voice. "I don't know how you do it, Hannah,"

"Do what?" Hannah tossed the pillow back onto Lily's head with a shrug.

"Wake up so _early_!" Lily gave a wide yawn and swung her legs around, placing her feet gingerly on the cold wooden floor.

"It's not that bad," Hannah laughed. "You know, you really should get used to it too,"

"No thanks," Lily said, and stepped out of bed, stretching out her arms.

"Calling all Rogues!" Hannah expelled a loud announcement, causing Lily to flinch at the volume. Several figures in the semi-darkness fidgeted, indicating that Jamie and Regan had been awakened by Hannah's call.

"Keep it down, would you?" a voice came from the bed belonging to Rosalie Williams, the sixth Gryffindor girl in seventh year, and a friend of Alice Hanby. Rosalie was generally a very warm-hearted person, but as Lily understood very well, everyone could be a bit moody in the early hours of the morning.

Lily looked at Jamie's bed, where the girl was sitting up and rubbing her eyes. She ran over to her friend and tugged on her arm. "Get up, lazy bones!" she said, and pulled her off of the mattress. Jamie groaned and slumped down onto the ground, her eyelids threatening to shut from fatigue. She leaned against the side of her bed and said,

"Just one more minute,"

"You're not even in bed anymore! It can't be _that_ hard to get up now!" Lily said, shaking her head. Because of the forceful volume she used to say this, it resulted in another scolding whisper from Rosalie.

After much persuasion, Jamie finally got to her feet. Satisfied with their success, Hannah and Lily now turned their attention to Regan; the girl was, as expected, nowhere to be seen - she was huddled so deep under her covers that not an inch of her was in sight.

"REGAN!" Hannah exclaimed.

"Would you two _keep it down_?"

"Sorry, Alice," Lily said with a small, apologetic smile in the girl's direction.

She looked back at Hannah, who was standing with her arms folded as the lump of covers fidgeted uneasily.

"Maybe we should just leave her," Lily suggested, knowing with utmost certainty that dragging Regan out of bed would not be an easy feat.

"Not an option," Hannah said defiantly, and took a step closer to Regan's bed. "Besides, I've got a plan. She's not going to like it, but it'll do the trick,"

Lily watched with interest, anxious to know what exactly this 'plan' entailed. Her inquiries were answered in an instant as Hannah drew her wand, pointed it in Regan's direction and uttered an incantation.

"Aguamenti!" she said. At once, a stream of water erupted from the tip of her wand. It shot through the air and came down on Regan's head, splashing onto her face and causing her to flinch.

"Gerfffff mmmm!" her words dissolved into gibberish as the plummeted down on her. Lily gave a small laugh as she watched the scene before her; Hannah wearing a sly smile, Regan's expression distorted in agony as she tossed and turned to avoid the water pouring onto her face.

By the time Regan gave in and leapt out of bed, she was soaked from head to toe. "Don't you _ever _do that again, Hannah Milton!" All the while, Hannah simply folded her arms and laughed, taking no note of her friend's annoyance.

"Come on," Hannah said, gesturing to their left. Following her lead, the others clambered onto her bed. They drew the curtains shut, closing off the area entirely, and arranged themselves comfortably on the neatly made comforter.

"_Muffliato!_" Lily said, then explained to the others, "I just thought we should keep the noise down, so that we don't aggravate Alice and Rosalie more than we already have,"

"Good thinking," Jamie said with a yawn. Lily suspected she may have been kicking herself for not having thought of such an idea before Lily did.

Suddenly, Hannah cleared her throat, and three heads turned immediately in her direction. She sat upright, her legs crossed beneath her and her hands wrapped around her ankles while she bounced up and down with excitement. "Well," she said in an upbeat manner. "I figured that, since it's the first day of school and all, we should hold our first Rogue meeting of the year,"

Lily nodded, as did the others.

Ever since a few weeks into first year, it had been a tradition for the Rogues to hold a group meeting once a week, as well as on any occasion when discussion was required. They spoke mainly about their planned pranks, and worked on future hijacks. They also sorted other issues concerning any of them, and spent quite a while talking and joking around (Regan had always argued that this was 'bonding time', and insisted that this was crucial for their teamwork, but Lily considered it to be simply an excuse to escape the seriousness of the meeting). The first meeting of the year was by far the most important, as it gave them a chance to figure out their plan of attack, and to talk about things that applied to that particular year. Approaching the seventh and final leg of the practical joke war, the meeting seemed more exciting than ever, despite the general bleariness in the area.

"So," Lily said, fidgeting anxiously. "Where should we begin?"

Hannah replied first, as if she had planned this out prior to the meeting. "I thought we could start by writing down everything that's going on this year. I suppose like a list of events?"

"Sounds good to me," Jamie responded. Regan gave a meek nod and shrugged.

The Rogues leaned in over the sheet of parchment that Hannah had drawn out from underneath her bed, tossing in comments as Jamie scribbled them down, her hand moving swiftly across the page. When they finished the list, they had included things such as the Halloween feast, the Christmas holidays and, of course, their NEWTs. They left spaces in between each event, allowing room for unforeseen occasions.

"What next?" said Jamie eagerly, taking a second piece of parchment from Hannah as she spoke.

"We should think about that truce," said Regan, causing unease amongst the others the moment she said these words. "I mean, do we really plan on holding back when we could be swindling them right now?"

"I was starting to wonder that myself," Hannah said, nodding with vigour. "Personally, I don't think we should waste our time abiding to this stupid truce. And since when do we play fair?"

"The Marauders seemed pretty serious about it," Jamie said, her eyebrows raised in concern.

"Only one of them was really _Sirius_, though," Regan said blandly, evidently attempting to sound casual as she offered up this dull humour.

"Shut up, Regan," Hannah groaned, tossing a pillow at her friend.

"Jamie," Lily said, ignoring the others. "Are we just going to wait for them to make the first move?"

"I suppose you're right," replied Jamie thoughtfully. "But it would be nice to have a little peace for a while,"

"True," Hannah put a hand to her chin, as if weighing up the possibilities.

"Well, I think we should vote," Lily said, folding her arms resolutely.

"Good idea," Regan agreed. The others nodded in reply. And so the four of them cast their votes, finishing with a result that could not have been more certain; there was full support of their first option – breaking the truce and beginning their pranks as soon as possible.

"Now," Hannah said, with mischief evident in her chocolate-coloured eyes. "Where shall we go from here?"

"How about a list of possible pranks?" suggested Lily.

There was a simultaneous buzz of enthusiasm as the other girls immediately began to offer ideas. Jamie frantically noted each idea as it came about, struggling to keep up with the constant flow of creativity. Regan, at long last, perked up and was almost shouting as she expressed her thoughts to the others. Lily listened attentively, taking in every last detail and throwing in an idea here and there. In the end, it was Hannah who came up with the most suggestions, clearly in a more alert state of mind than the others.

* * *

There was much exchanging of roguish smiles as they made their way down to the Great Hall a little later, all dressed in their robes and ready for a day of classes. However, they all knew that there was much more in store than just lessons.

As they reached the large stone archway that granted access to the hall, Jamie flicked a feather from the collar of her robes. The girls had just returned from the Owlery, where they had made preparations for their first practical joke of the year.

A few moments later, the four Rogues were seated, two on each side of the table, sipping pumpkin juice from their goblets and devouring bacon, eggs and numerous slices of toast. Every now and then, they shot each other sly grins, although they tried to keep this to a minimum in order to appear casual to onlookers. At last, the sound they had been waiting for emerged from a window high on the walls of the Great Hall. Every head turned as the screeching of owls filled the room. The feathered creatures fluttered into the open, each one clutching an envelope or parcel in its talons.

"There it is," Jamie whispered, pointing to a snowy owl that stood out amongst the cloud of brown and grey birds. In its claws it was holding a medium sized package, wrapped in brown paper and tied with a bow that was bright pink. The moment they spotted it, they looked away, returning instantaneously to their previous activities of eating, drinking and exchanging quiet conversation. Occasionally, they glanced up at the bird to keep track of its progress, and continued to do so until it finally landed not far from them in front of a boy at the Gryffindor table. It was Peter Pettigrew.

At this point, the girls could not hold back any longer. Without hesitation, all four of them fixed their eyes upon Peter, who was looking, confused, at the package in front of him and beginning to read the tag that was attached to it. The rest of the Marauders leaned in to him; Remus looked suspicious, while James and Sirius laughed and nudged Peter playfully in the arms.

"It says: 'Peter, darling. Have this. From Mother'" The girls could scarcely here these words, but they knew very well what was written on the tag.

"Ooh!" Sirius said loudly. "A present from Mommy? Go on! Open it!"

Peter blushed and cautiously began to remove the brown paper from the parcel. Lily's eyes widened and her heart beat fast with anticipation as she watched the events unfold in front of her.

After removing the last scrap of wrapping from the package, Peter picked up the object and held it up to look at. It was a pink and white bonnet, complete with lace and ribbons. The overall image of it was rather comical, and the idea of Peter wearing such a thing made the girls erupt into laughter. Fortunately, the snickers that came from many other Gryffindor students masked this from the Marauders, and so no attention was drawn to them.

"Mother sent me this?" Peter said incredulously, dropping the hideous thing onto the table as if it were red hot.

"Put it on!" said James, picking it up and throwing it at Peter. The boy said nothing, but simply put it back onto the table and took a large swig from his pumpkin juice. Although this was a ploy to detract from the attention that was currently focused on him, it did nothing, for as soon as he drank from his goblet, he began to choke and splutter, his face turning redder by the moment. Even the Marauders – including Remus – were laughing at this point. It was too hysterical for anybody to turn a blind eye to it. When Peter finally recovered from his coughing fit, he straightened himself and sat still, his jaw clenched and his eyes downcast with embarrassment.

"Oi, Marauders!" Hannah sang out. The Rogues were on their way to Defense Against the Dark Arts when they spotted the four boys just up ahead of them. Peter was clutching his books and staring at the ground, walking at a considerably fast pace for somebody of his stature. Lily could see a piece of the bonnet sticking out of his bag, which caused her to assume that he had stuffed it in there, worried that his mother might reprimand him should he throw it away. This triggered a slight pang of pity for the boy, but it also made her laugh quietly to herself.

At Hannah's exclamation, the four boys turned, and Lily felt James's gaze upon her. She looked up and their eyes met for a split second, but she dropped his gaze almost immediately. It was a rare case indeed if she or one of the others were to feel at all guilty about a prank that they had pulled on the Marauders, but for the strangest reason – one that she couldn't quite comprehend – she found herself avoiding James's eye. Of course, she reminded herself, it wasn't at all weird, not wanting to look at somebody as infuriating as James Potter. But lately he had seemed so... mature, if such a thing could be said about him. And the thought of this little change affecting his approach to the practical joke war meant that Lily was beginning to have doubts about their decision to break the truce that had been made on the train the previous day. Now that she thought about it, it seemed awfully soon to do this, and the Marauders _had_ seemed quite genuine about it...

_What am I talking about?_ Lily thought to herself, shaking these thoughts from her head. _Potter isn't capable of being serious about anything._ She had to stifle a small laugh as she imagined Regan's response to this accidental, Sirius-related pun.

"What do you want, Milton?" Lily now tuned into Sirius's exclamation. "Did you come to make an offer on Wormtail's bonnet? 'Cause if you did, I'm all for it. I think it'd suit you wonderfully."

Hannah scowled, folded her arms and raised her eyebrows defiantly. "Actually, I came to complimentold Worm_butt_ on his lovely gift." Lily saw Peter's face redden at this snide remark, but the rest of the Marauders, it seemed, were unable to contain their laughter.

"So you _do_ like it then!" Sirius said, clapping his hands together in mock delight and speaking in a tone that was disturbingly girly.

"Not particularly," Hannah put on an expression of pure disgust. "But I hope Petey Poo does. You know Mummy won't be very pleased if you don't wear it."

It rather pained Lily to watch the realization fall across Peter's plump face. He had always been the least spiteful of the four, and he hardly deserved the torture that the Rogues often inflicted on him. But on the other hand, Lily remembered, he was the weakest link in the chain; the Achilles Heel of the group and by far the easiest to pick on.

"It... it was you!" he stuttered, his expression stiff, his hands curling into tight fists.

"Took your time," Regan laughed. As Peter glanced accusingly at each of the Rogues in turn, he dodged Regan's eyes with such obviousness that Lily had to raise her eyebrows. Although puzzled, she quickly forgot about this, distracted by everything else that was going on.

"Ah," James was smirking now, and Lily listened keenly to his reaction. "We've decided to play it on individual targets already, have we?"

"I think you'll find that we're a little more _unpredictable_ than last year." Jamie said, savouring the words as if extremely proud of herself for speaking up at all.

"The Rogues? Unpredictable? I never would have guessed." Remus spoke a little awkwardly and Jamie blushed. Lily thought she picked up on the same quality in Remus's voice that she had in Jamie's; it was a lot to ask for anybody expected muck talk from these two. And, as it seemed, it was a little _too _much to ask, for they both fell silent after Hannah took over.

"I think that's kind of the point of being unpredictable."

"Don't be such a smart Alec, Milton!" Sirius shot darkly at her, and all at once, they launched into a full-blown, all too familiar Hannah-Sirius blow out.

"Just 'cause you don't have a brain, Black!"

"And what would _you_ know about my internal organs?"

"Well they must be pretty revolting if what's on the outside is anything to go by."

"Ha! You want to work with _that_ argument? Good luck!"

"You're so pig-headed, did you know that?"

"At least I don't _look_ like a pig!"

"Talk about weak arguments!"

"Shut up, you blabbermouth! Can't you keep your mouth shut just for one second?"

"Why don't you just go jump off a cliff? Nobody wan-"

"BOTH OF YOU, SHUT UP!"

Lily's head snapped up at the sound of this new voice, and realized with surprise that it was James who spoke, placing himself strategically between Sirius and Hannah. The arguing pair had gradually moved out into the open space between the groups and stood facing each other, both red-faced and ready to lash out at any moment. Thankfully, the argument had not advanced to the point of drawing wands – Lily shuddered at the bank of memories she had stored from the numerous occasions when it _had_ gone that far. If it wasn't for James, standing furiously between the pair and holding up both hands to stop them yelling at each other, they would have begun cursing each other by now, and it wouldn't be pretty.

"You two _really_ need to stop ripping each others' heads off!" James said in a firm tone that was surprisingly full of authority. "We all know that you two have your differences to sort out, but you can save that for another time. Now can we please just shut up and get to class?"

After this, nobody spoke. Lily was quite shocked at his willingness to reprimand his own friend. But what was even more of a surprise was the sudden emptiness of the corridors. They had all been so engrossed in their bickering that they had failed to notice the students quietly filing off to their first classes.

"We're late for Defense Against the Dark Arts." she urgently reminded the others, glancing over at James after she finished speaking to her friends. He had a hand on Sirius's back and was ushering him along the corridor, both of them with their heads down; Remus and Peter were quiet at their heels.

"Let's go." Jamie was already on the move, flicking a strand of luxurious hair over her shoulder to make room for the strap of her book bag.

Regan lagged behind. "Ugh," she groaned. "DADA, can't we just skip?"

"Absolutely not!" Lily did a fairly accurate impersonation of Professor Marsh, the incredibly dull and excruciatingly old-fashioned Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher who had delivered uncountable boring lessons to her students over the years.

Regan simply responded with a a laugh and came along reluctantly when Lily grabbed her by the wrist and attempted to drag her.

What was more interesting even than Regan's pleas to get out of class was something quiet but puzzling – Hannah remained silent the whole time.

* * *

"Who can tell me what determines the form of a wizard's Patronus?"

Lily sighed and lifted her hand slowly and instinctively to respond to the Professor's monotone voice. She had been alert for the first ten minutes of the lesson, but her energy had long since depleted, and her attention was now somewhat withdrawn. She had only vaguely heard the outline of the most recent question, but it was far to simple to require any more attentiveness that Lily was currently willing to dish out.

"Yes, Miss Evans?" Professor Marsh looked to Lily, her beady grey eyes giving a cold, emotionless stare, her thin lips pursed into a dry frown.

"The Patronus of a wizard or witch takes on the shape of an animal that the spell-user relates to a happy memory or feeling." she recited, quoting her textbook almost exactly.

"Good," Marsh grunted. "And why is this?"

It took a moment for Lily to realize that the teacher was still looking to her for answers.

"Because the strength of this joy combined with the happy memory inside the wizard's head is powerful enough to repel the gloom of the dementor." Lily continued, easily remembering every line she had read and not really paying attention to a word she was saying.

"Very well," said the Professor, clearly unimpressed.

Lily heard a snigger from beside her, on her left. A quick glance in that direction reminded her of the terrible seating arrangement that Professor Marsh had allocated. Lily had been placed next to none other than James Potter. As if working alongside him to keep the school in order wasn't agony enough, she would now be forced to work next to him in class, too.

"You've been reading." he laughed quietly, his words sounding neither insulting, nor satirical, but simply like a casual comment. Lily felt her cheeks burn instantly.

"Shut up, Potter." she shot back defensively.

To her surprise, James fell silent and didn't bother her again. This made her wonder if perhaps he had merely meant it as a friendly comment. But _Potter?_ _Friendly?_ The thought of it was unconceivable.

As the Professor lapsed into a long-winded description of Azkaban's "top-notch" security and its exact location – neither of which were directly associated with the subject she was supposed to be teaching them – Lily looked around at her classmates. Jamie sat a few feet away, paired with Frank Longbottom. The poor girl was very obviously trying to dodge his gaze, clearly uneasy about getting back to him on the inquiry he had made on the train. The even more unfortunate boy was looking hopefully at the back of her head, evidently trying to catch her eye. Over to Lily's right sat Regan, tossing tiny morsels of parchment into the hair of oblivious Peter Pettigrew, who sat next to her at the desk. And finally, at the very front of the classroom, where the teacher could easily keep a keen eye on them, Hannah and Sirius were seated, having edged so far away from each other that it appeared they weren't even sharing a table. Evidently, this morning's squabble had had significant aftermath on these two.

All of her friends seemed very unsettled in their seats – which were, it seemed, very poorly thought out by the teacher – and yet here was Lily, sitting next to _James Potter_, the very person she had detested for more than six years. Sitting next to him without anything beyond the slightest disturbance. The Potter she knew would be scribbling on the corner of her notes by now, or at least begging her to go out with him as he had done an unbearable number of times in the past. But this was nothing like that. James was listening – _listening_ – to the teacher, without bugging Lily at all.

Now, despite her doubts from before, Lily could safely answer the question that had been constantly nagging her since they stepped onto the Hogwarts Express; yes, James had certainly changed. But what would come of it, Lily had yet to find out.

* * *

**A/N:** And that's all for now... I'd really appreciate it if you'd leave a review and tell me what you think, but it's not obligatory (obviously). In any case, I hope you're enjoying the story so far! There's still much more to come. ;)


	7. Bombs Away, Part One

**Plot:** The infamous Marauders weren't alone in their love for pranking. In fact, they often had their butts kicked by a bunch of girls. Now, this is it. Seventh year. Four girls, four boys. Two opposing pranking teams. One hell of a battle to be won.

**Disclaimer:** Sad as it may be, I am not J.K. Rowling in disguise, and therefore I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters or themes involved. (I do, however, own Jamie, Hannah and Regan and most elements of this specific plot—so I'd appreciate it if no poaching occurred. Thanks.)

**WARNING (please read): **This is the unedited version, meaning I wrote it a few years ago when my skill level sucked and I had no idea how to properly structure a story. So if you'll please ignore the terrible grammar, dodgy sentence structure, OOC-ness, plot holes, canonical inconsistencies and general immaturity of this whole chapter while I plough my way through all this editing work, that would be greatly appreciated. :) I'm in the process of fixing up all the chapters right now, but you'll have to be patient, because (as you can probably tell just by reading a couple of sentences below) fixing this stuff up takes a lot of time and effort.

* * *

**Chapter 7 – Bombs Away (Part 1)**

Several days passed without any disturbance from the Marauders, so the Rogues were generally left to their own devices – this excluded the occasional malevolent glance in their direction and a few randomly extended feet for Hannah to trip over (courtesy of Sirius) whenever the groups passed each other in the corridors. In fact, it wasn't until the day before the first planned trip to Hogsmeade that the Marauders began to show signs of their previous hostility.

Lily guessed that much of their previous distance had been caused by Sirius and Hannah's brawl. Usually, the two of them would quickly have gotten over it, and by now Hannah would be talking of nothing but spiteful ways of getting her revenge on 'the blathering troll' (a little nickname she had fashioned for Sirius, helping her to release her anger mostly because of the fact that it - or at least the second word – was a complete contradiction of the obvious truth that he was so adamant about rubbing in). However, since the argument before Defense Against the Dark Arts, Hannah had been surprisingly reserved, and spoke very little, a dark and thoughtful expression on her face for the most part. To Lily and the others, this was a blatant sign that something was wrong – and after a whole day with not a word from Hannah, they had started interrogating her about her behaviour. But she insisted that it was nothing at all, and that she was just concentrating really hard on her studies (this, of course, was an instant giveaway). Regan, however, was convinced she was suffering from a bad case of PMS.

In the time leading up to the Hogsmeade trip, the glares from the Marauders became more frequent, and the girls were often finding pranks left in their beds. Some were rather fickle – exploding rubber rats, fake spiders bewitched so that they scuttled across the sheets – and some not so pathetic – for example, in Regan's case, a whole pile of Flobberworms that required half an hour of charming to remove from her bedspread. But as they had grown used to the inconveniences caused by their feud, it wasn't a terribly difficult feat when they tried to act as though it didn't bother them whenever they were in the presence of the boys. Defense Against the Dark Arts, too, had proven to be quite a problem; Professor Marsh was evidently quite annoyed with the constant breakout of arguments between the Marauders and the Rogues.

But another more _pressing_ matter currently had much of the girls' attention reserved. This matter went by the name of Jamie. Their friend had lately been in a somewhat frantic, even _distraught_ state. The cause of this was, undoubtedly, her upcoming date with Frank Longbottom. Judging by her constant jitters, this concept was making her either over the moon or extremely nervous – the latter of these two being the most likely. By the way she was acting, Frank might as well have been a huge dragon intent on blowing her brains out. Lily remembered the morning of their first Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson, when all the students had trudged out of the classroom and Jamie had sprinted up to the other three looking as though she'd just guzzled a galleon of extra-strong coffee.

"Are you on something?" had been Regan's immediate response, complete with a raised eyebrows.

Jamie had given a nervous smile and squeaked: "I said yes."

After much calming from her friends, she had proceeded to explain her conversation with Frank, his innocent inquiry for her answer and the spur-of-the-moment reply she had given. Had she rejected him, Jamie told them, she would have resented herself forever. But, as Hannah never ceased to remind her, 'If you don't like him, what's the point?'

* * *

On the morning of the Hogsmeade trip, Jamie spent at least thirty minutes fussing over her hair and clothes, preparing for the date which was to take place at the Three Broomsticks that day. Having finally settled on a pale yellow cardigan over a fitted lavender shirt with a a a pair of jeans, and having pulled her hair into an extensive braid (this reminded Lily of a princess in one of the Muggle fairytales she had read as a young girl), she came to Lily for a final opinion.

"Are you sure I look okay?" she asked, her voice feeble and high-pitched.

"Jamie, you look great!" Lily assured her. "Since when do _you_ have to worry about your appearance?" Jamie blushed.

"Besides," Hannah chipped in. She and Regan were sprawled out on one of the beds, tossing Every-Flavoured Beans into each others' mouths. "What does it matter if you don't even like the guy?"

"I don't know!" Jamie wailed, sitting down on the comforter and burying her face in her hands. "I don't know if I like him or not!"

Regan scoffed. "This is _Frank Longbottom _we're talking about." Hannah laughed, but Lily sat, quiet and thoughtful, at Jamie's side. Frank, although known to be a little nerdy, was a nice guy – and it wasn't as though he was bad looking. However, she had to agree with Regan on some level; not because she had anything against Frank, but simply because she knew Jamie well enough to work out whether or not she liked a guy – and in this case, she was fairly certain that the answer was no.

"It doesn't sound as though you're very interested," Lily told her truthfully. "Not to be rude or anything."

"Oh, what am I doing?" Jamie was starting to sound frustrated, as opposed to hysterical.

"As Trelawney would say, you are _butchering the realms of your future_." Regan said without tone, quoting the bat-like Divination teacher that had taught them in third year (all four had quickly dropped the subject after this).

"That doesn't even make sense." Hannah told her with raised eyebrows.

"I know." Regan shrugged, and threw a bean at Hannah's face.

* * *

"Please don't make me go in there."

The Rogues were standing outside the door to The Three Broomsticks, and Jamie had frozen in her tracks a few paces away from the entrance. It was comical; the way that Lily, Hannah and Regan put their hands on their hips almost simultaneously. Jamie almost laughed, but she could tell by the stubborn look on each of their faces that they had no intention of letting her go easily.

"You got yourself into this, now deal with it!" Hannah said sharply, before giving her a swift shove through the door, held open by a smug-looking Lily.

"Now that we've gotten rid of her," Lily joked, when only she, Hannah and Regan remained outside. "Where to?"

"The nearest window, of course!" Regan gave them a wink and skipped off around the corner. Lily and Hannah exchanged impish grins and followed.

* * *

Jamie was suddenly engulfed in a haze of warm air that was thick with a number of smells, ranging from sweet to musty. The pub was filled with a dim orange light that, although faint, somehow seemed to illuminate the entire room. Jamie glanced around at the numerous round tables, and spotted Frank sitting at one against the side wall. When he grinned at her and waved jovially, she returned the gesture with a nervous laugh and a small wave that looked more like a meek flick of the hand.

_I have no reason to be nervous_, Jamie reminded herself. _I've done this plenty of times before_. And it was true; Jamie had dated several boys over her years at Hogwarts, and her unease had seemed to decrease every time. But for some reason, it felt different this time. She supposed that the reason for this might be that she was unsure whether or not she really wanted to be here in the first place. In a way, part of her fear was of disappointing him or hurting his feelings. And then, of course, there was the concept of making a fool of herself.

"Hi, Jamie," Frank said, still beaming as she approached the table. "This is for you." he drew a small, pink flower from his pocket and held it out for her. Jamie's heart skipped a beat as she took it gingerly from his hand.

"Thanks. I um..." she started, but quickly decided that it would be best if she didn't mention her forgetting to get him anything. "Never mind." Surprisingly, his smile remained undisturbed.

Frank rose from his seat and pulled out the opposite chair for her. Jamie thanked him and sat down, feeling more awkward by the minute. But had she even been in the room for a minute? It seemed like twenty.

"I hope you're alright with the location." Frank hurried to say after a moment of silence. "I would have taken you elsewhere, but all the tables tend to be full on the first Hogsmeade trip of the year."

"No, not at all."

"So how's your term been so far?"

"Well, no bad," had her face not been frozen, Jamie would have scowled bitterly at the thought of the great disturbances the Marauders had been causing so far. Instead, she managed to say: "And you?"

"Quite good. But the homework load – now _that's_ got me tied down," she was rather shocked at his ability to converse so smoothly with her. "But you wouldn't have any trouble getting through it, I'll bet."

"Don't be so sure," she tried to smile.

They lapsed back into silence, and soon enough, a female bartender waltzed up to them. "What will it be, darlings?" she asked in a sweet, syrupy tone.

"We'll take two Butterbeers. If that's alright with you?" Frank shot Jamie a questioning glance. She nodded, and the bartender trotted off, returning a moment later with their drinks. Jamie sipped eagerly at hers; she would have been quite satisfied with any beverage – all she really wanted was something to distract her from the uncomfortable atmosphere and an excuse not to talk. Unfortunately, the benefits of the Butterbeer didn't last long.

"So you're a Prefect, huh?"

"Yup."

"Personally, I thought you would have been made Head Girl."

"So did I," this answer was almost automatic, and Jamie corrected her mistake as fast as she could. "Sorry," she said. "I mean, I'm not being vain or anything, but I did have my hopes up." Frank merely laughed. She was starting to wonder if the grin had disappeared from his face even once since she had arrived.

"Who are you paired with, then? Lupin, is it?"

"As Prefect? Yes." she responded, wondering if the hint of jealousy she had detected really was there in his voice. Her stomach turned a little at the thought of it.

"Of all the-" Jamie had a feeling he was about to make reference to the legendary battle between the Marauders and the Rogues, and the peculiar pairing of authoritative positions, but he stopped. To her surprise, he sniffed. "Do you smell that?"

"Smell what?" but her question didn't need answering; the moment she breathed in, her nostrils were filled with the most revolting, putrid smell she had ever scented. "Yuck!" she exclaimed, putting a hand over her nose.

Then it all happened very quickly; a dirty brown fog began to fill the pub, people were standing up and exchanging astounded comments and exclamations, a number of small, round objects were pelted in from an area near the door, the door opened and closed suddenly even though there wasn't a single person within three metres of it, and through a quick train of thoughts, Jamie had a fair idea what was going on.

"Those idiot Marauders!" she cried in frustration, standing up. It was lucky that people were already screaming and shouting, because if not, the sheer volume of Jamie's voice – usually small and timid – would have disturbed every person in the bar. For the first time that morning, Frank's smile vanished and was replaced by an expression of concern.

"What?" he said.

"I'm _so_ sorry, Frank," she said apologetically, pushing in her chair. "I've had a really great time. It's just that there's... well, something I have to tend to. I'll see you."

And with that, Jamie was out the door before the poor boy even had a chance to respond. Outside the bar, she sighed heavily and turned to look for the others, cursing the Marauders silently and kicking herself all the while for leaving Frank in there, all alone. She felt like an idiot, but she couldn't do anything about it. For now, she had to first find her friends, and then chase up the Marauders.

* * *

**A/N:** Once again, comments and guidance (in the form of reviews, of course) would be greatly appreciated. (EDIT: Especially now, when I'm in the process of fixing up these earlier chapters. If there's anything you'd like me to change, or some problem you've noticed that I may not have picked up on, now's your time to say something about it.)


	8. Bombs Away, Part Two

**Plot:** The infamous Marauders weren't alone in their love for pranking. In fact, they often had their butts kicked by a bunch of girls. Now, this is it. Seventh year. Four girls, four boys. Two opposing pranking teams. One hell of a battle to be won.

**Disclaimer:** Sad as it may be, I am not J.K. Rowling in disguise, and therefore I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters or themes involved. (I do, however, own Jamie, Hannah and Regan and most elements of this specific plot—so I'd appreciate it if no poaching occurred. Thanks.)

**WARNING (please read): **This is the unedited version, meaning I wrote it a few years ago when my skill level sucked and I had no idea how to properly structure a story. So if you'll please ignore the terrible grammar, dodgy sentence structure, OOC-ness, plot holes, canonical inconsistencies and general immaturity of this whole chapter while I plough my way through all this editing work, that would be greatly appreciated. :) I'm in the process of fixing up all the chapters right now, but you'll have to be patient, because (as you can probably tell just by reading a couple of sentences below) fixing this stuff up takes a lot of time and effort.

* * *

**Chapter 8 – Bombs Away (Part 2)**

The moment that Jamie bolted for the door, the other Rogues – who had been watching the events from a dirty window at the back – ran around to greet her. They knew exactly what had gone on inside, and without speaking to one another, they were certain of what they had to do. However, it took a few circles of the building to find Jamie, who quickly explained that she, too, had been circling the pub in hopes of catching up.

In a split second, Jamie had her hands firmly on Lily's shoulders. She was panting, and her eyes were wide. "The Marauders," she managed to spit out. "They-"

"We know," Hannah cut her off, an edge of anger on her voice. "We need to find them."

"But where do we start?" Lily inquired, puzzled and looking around for traces of the mischief-making boys. Jamie removed her hands from Lily's shoulders and at once began to look around too. But there was no sign of any of them – all that surrounded the girls was trees, wooden buildings and so many people that it was difficult to see through the crowds.

"I think I have a fair idea," Regan said apprehensively, pointing to her right. Lily swiveled in that direction, and immediately she knew what had triggered her friend's sudden knowledge. In the dirt a few yards away, suddenly very palpable because of a clearing in the crowd, she could see a trail of footprints multiplying rapidly. Although there seemed to be nobody there to make these tracks, they were moving very swiftly in the direction of-

"The Shrieking Shack!" Jamie almost shrieked as she said it. The others gasped.

The Shrieking Shack was located at the highest point in Hogsmeade; an area very rarely visited by students. The most likely – in fact, quite definite – cause of this unpopularity had to be its appearance. It was incredibly unattractive with panels of rotting wood, rickety ladders and windows covered in a thick layer of sheer cobwebs. It looked as though it might collapse at any moment, so feeble it appeared. But this was the least of the students' precautions towards the building; a number of extremely chilling stories of the shack had cycled the school over the years, and even the fearless Rogues shivered at the sight of its sinister shabbiness.

"They're trying to lead us in there, obviously," Lily concluded. "Do you think it's a trap?"

"Who knows?" Hannah answered thoughtfully.

"Who cares?" said Regan loudly as she pushed through the others and started on her way towards the tracks. The footprints were indeed going in exactly the direction of the Shrieking Shack, and their pace was picking up too.

"C'mon," Lily muttered, and followed.

Hannah and Jamie, trudging along behind, quickly caught up; the footprints, however, were moving so quickly that the girls had to break into a run to keep up with them. The prints barely slowed even when they reached a steep hill that was rather difficult to climb. Determined not to fall behind, the Rogues traipsed on and finally reached the hilltop. At this point, the speed of the footprints gradually decreased until they – whoever they belonged to – came to a standstill about ten metres away from Lily and her friends.

Lily, who had been concentrating solely on the ground for the last few minutes, had forgotten to look up, and when she finally raised her head, the sight was repulsive, to say the least. Never before had she come this close to the shack, and although she had once told herself it mustn't look so terrifying close up, she shuddered at the sight of it. It loomed above them, ghostly reflections in its dark windows chilling Lily to the bone.

Very eagerly, she pulled her gaze away from the Shrieking Shack and instead looked ahead of her. She frowned. This sight wasn't very pleasant either. They stood at the end of a moderately sized clearing with level ground that was covered in a ruffled film of autumn leaves. At the other end of the area stood all four of the Marauders; all wearing haughty grins and all standing with utter confidence. Peter looked by far the most smug, and because of this, Lily decided that the Rogues were probably in for a severe blow of revenge. She gulped as she looked at the Marauders, and for the first time she could remember, Lily felt a surge of fear wash over her. They were quite daunting with their self-satisfied expressions, their hair blowing lightly in the wind – aside from Peter, who, of course could look nothing but pathetic. It was almost like a scene out of a movie; only the boys looked like the Heroes, ready with a plan to save the day. But Lily was completely sure of one thing; save the day, the Marauders would not.

"Well well well," Sirius said, his booming voice carrying easily across the distance between them. "They came."

"Yeah, we're not cowards," Hannah said firmly, the usual, smug, 'that-was-pretty-obvious' tone completely absent from her voice. Even Sirius frowned at the solemnity of her words. "Now what's the deal?"

"Deal?" Sirius's smirk picked up at the corner of his handsome lips again. His eyes danced with anticipation. "Who said we were making any sort of deal with _you_?"

Hannah didn't reply, but merely squinted her eyes suspiciously.

"Yeah," James continued on from his friend's words. "If I remember correctly, the last time we made a deal, you four blew it within twenty-four hours. I don't think that was very fair of you."

Lily gulped. Her worries were confirmed – James really _had_ been annoyed by their quick breaking of the truce. That was for sure, unless this was simply a tactic to make them guilty for what they had done. Yes, surely that was the case.

Luckily, Regan took over from Hannah and fought back. "Since when do we play fair?"

"She's right," Hannah agreed. "Don't get us started on all the dirty tricks you've played on us."

"Like the time you meddled with Regan's quill just before the OWLs, even though we made it perfectly clear that exam-related pranks were completely forbidden," Jamie offered.

"And what about that incident when you ganged up on Jamie while the rest of us were in the hospital wing, all thanks to one of your horrible pranks?" Lily tossed in another suggestion, placing her hands on her hips.

"Hey," Remus said defensively. "It's not like you haven't done the same thing to us."

"Yeah! You put my potions book in the toil-"

"Not now, Peter!" Sirius put out a hand to silence his friend, and then moved on. "Alright," he started. "So we've never really played by the rules. What's the big deal? Isn't that the whole point of this... war, or whatever we've got going on?"

"I'm with that," Hannah said, much to their surprise. "But only because I'll do anything in my power to wipe that filthy smirk off of Black's stupid face."

"Shut up, pig fa-"

"Stop it!" James cut in before the two could begin yet another of their legendary quarrels. "Let's get to the point, okay?" Everyone nodded, but Jamie suddenly interrupted.

"Wait!" she said, with surprising boldness for somebody who was normally very timid. Lily could see rage burning in her blue eyes. "Do you think I'm just going to _forget _what you did to Frank?"

"Frank?" Sirius laughed. "Sorry, honey, but that prank was aimed at you."

"Oh, it may have been," Jamie's confidence was building with every word. She stepped forward and eyed each of the Marauders with distaste. "But who got left all alone looking like he just got dumped by a girl on their first date?"

Sirius didn't answer, and none of the Marauders came to his rescue. Remus, however, did speak, but not in his friend's favour.

"She's right, guys," he said to the rest of the Marauders. "We should apologize to Frank when we see him again."

Jamie stepped back, smiling slightly, and evidently satisfied with the result. Lily could have sworn she saw Remus return the same shy smile, but after a quick moment of thought she decided that her eyes were playing tricks on her.

"Whatever," Sirius gave in. "But that doesn't mean I regret what we did to _her_," he gestured at Jamie with narrowed eyes. "They deserve it. All four of them."

"Back to the point," James cut in, impatience showing in his voice now.

"We're listening," said Regan with her arms folded across her chest.

"Look," James stepped into the open space between them. "We figured that it was about time to have a little four on four battle."

"Ooh, I like the sound of this!" Hannah piped up, exchanging a high five with Regan before resuming her stubborn stance and listening to James once again.

"So we've decided..."

"To have a snowball fight!"

"Don't you know _anything_ about dramatic tension, Padfoot?" James sounded annoyed, and slapped his friend on the back of the head.

Lily scoffed. "You do realize it's the middle of autumn, don't you?" she raised an eyebrow, not sure what the Marauders were getting at.

"So?" James said back, a sly smile tugging at the corners of his lips.

"So," said Lily slowly. "That means there can't possibly be any-" _SMACK!_ Her words were cut off when a huge lump of a frozen substance hit the side of the face. She experienced a subtle tingling, burning sensation as he cold water drizzled down her cheek and into her mouth.

"Snow?" Sirius laughed loudly. "Guess again!"

"How did you...?" Lily was utterly puzzled.

"Don't tell me none of you pay attention in Transfig-" but James, too, had to stop mid-sentence, when a larger snowball hit him square in the face.

Lily, quite shocked at this, turned to see Jamie standing proudly as she brandished her wand in front of her. "Come on," Jamie said lightly. "It's _Emineo_ _Viburnum_! Use it on the rocks! Honestly, that loony substitute teacher taught us in third year! Don't you remember?" Jamie smiled, preparing to send another wad of snow in the boys' direction. In truth, Lily had a vague recollection of learning the spell to transfigure solid objects into snowballs and direct them at an opponent, but not in a million years would she have remembered how to use it. It was at times like this that the Rogues were extremely proud to have Jamie in their group.

Jamie's next blow struck Remus in the shoulder, and he retaliated with one that hit her in the back (she had turned around in search of more rocks to transfigure). Lily joined in, aiming particularly for James, who seemed to have picked her as his prime target as well. Soon there was chaos; not one person was not involved, and snowballs were flying every which way. It was pure pandemonium – there was a mess of flying white objects in the air, and frequent outbursts of 'OUCH!' and 'I'M GOING TO GET YOU FOR THAT!' (used many times in Hannah's case). At one point, a snowball struck Sirius in the stomach so hard that he doubled over.

"Damn," Hannah said at this. "Wasn't quite where I was aiming for, but that'll do."

The mayhem lasted for quite a lot longer than they expected – despite their predicted shortage of rocks, they always seemed to find new things to transfigure; plants, bits of wood fallen from the Shrieking Shack... the list went on and on. And by the time they were beginning to run out of ammo, all sorts of crazy things were flying through the air (mostly due to the inaccurate spellwork brought on by their building exhaustion), from wads of moss and dirt to piles of sloppy mud - which made for a very messy result. All of them laughed out loud when Hannah's incantation went wrong and she ended up tossing a harmless cotton ball in Sirius's direction.

"We're not giving up, you know," Lily said stubbornly, when all eight of them were covered from head to toe in various substances. Not one of them was showing signs of defeat, although they were drenched in everything from chocolate pudding to bird feathers and their wand arms were beginning to tire from the continuous effort.

"Neither are we," Remus said back to her, sending with his words a rather large snowball (he, Jamie and Lily seemed to be the only ones left who were still using the spell correctly). It hit Lily hard in the leg, and she quickly shot one back at his chest.

Suddenly, a sharp and abrupt scream came from Lily's left. She looked over, alarmed, so see Regan lying flat on the ground. She appeared to be unconscious, and there was blood seeping out of her forehead, running into her dark hair and the leaves around her. Lily gave a gasp of horror at the sight of her friend, and, along with Hannah and Jamie, rushed to Regan's side. Her blood was quickly soaking through the leaves around her head, and running down to her robes, staining the collar. It wasn't until the three of them were crouched at her side, with the Marauders close behind, that Lily noticed a rock, not so far from her friend's head, with a small patch of blood on it.

"Wormtail!" James said from behind them, speaking in a quiet tone that was full of annoyance. "What spell, exactly, did you use on that rock?"

"Wingardium Leviosa," Peter muttered, hanging his head.

"You idiot!" Sirius exclaimed. "Did you expect it to transfigure itself?"

"No," said Peter even more quietly.

Lily was furious and wanted nothing more than to yell at the Marauders for what they had done, but Hannah beat her to it.

"Are you _that _dumb?" her pointed words were aimed at Peter, who was trying very hard to hide his face. "Or did your stupidity not have any part in your decision to knock her out?"

"Hey!" Remus said, interrupting what would have been an endless scolding. "Let's not pin this on Peter, okay? We were all fighting."

"Yeah, sure. But I didn't see anybody else throwing ro-"

"Hannah," Jamie started in a calm voice. She was holding Regan's limp hand while Lily tried to lift the unconscious girl's blood-soaked head. "Just forget it, we don't have time for this. You can have a go at them later."

"We have to get her to the Hospital Wing," Lily said in a concerned voice.

"Yeah," agreed Hannah, taking a step back. "But how are we going to get her-"

"Leave it to me," said James, striding forward and slipping his arms under Regan's relaxed body. In one swift motion, he had her in his arms. Regan was quite a small girl for her age, but all the same, Lily was somewhat impressed by his strength. And for some strange reason that she could not begin to explain, Lily felt a stab of jealousy hit her in the chest. She tried to ignore it by looking away from James. _What on earth was wrong with her?_

The rest of them followed soundlessly behind James, who was still supporting Regan, seemingly without effort. When they were no longer in sight of the Shrieking Shack, Lily felt herself physically become more relaxed, glad to be out of its chilling midst. The group ambled down into the main area of Hogsmeade, attracting many shocked glances from onlookers.

"Heavens! What happened to her?" it was McGonagall who spoke, having made her way through the crowds. Her eyes were wide with alarm as she approached them.

"She um... got hit by a rock," Hannah explained plainly. McGonagall's expression turned to one of scorn.

"I'm sure I don't want to know what happened between the eight of you," she glanced around at all of them, and a few lowered their heads shamefully – the rest simply looked accusingly at their rivals. "You had better get Miss Tain to the Hospital Wing quickly." she advised, and walked off.

The group walked on in silence, and soon enough, they had arrived at the entrance of the castle. They made their way up to the Hospital Wing. Lily was beginning to wonder if James's arms were getting tired, but he looked as steady as ever.

"I should have known I would be seeing you soon," said Madam Pomfrey upon their arrival, frowning. She had been the one to deal with every one of the wounds and other mishaps inflicted by the practical joke war, and by the sound of her voice, she was getting very tired of it. "What is it this time?" she said in a monotone.

"Got hit in the head by a rock," James explained, laying Regan gently down on an empty bed. She was still out cold, by the looks of it. Madam Pomfrey muttered something unintelligible before getting straight to work.

Lily watched her dab at Regan's wound with a cloth. The white fabric became drenched in blood very quickly. Lily's eyes widened at the amount of blood that seemed to be pouring from her friend's head. There was so much of it that Lily almost felt... _uh oh_. Even before it happened, Lily could sense the nausea coming on. Then she started to feel faint, and suddenly, the room started swim before her eyes. She could vaguely hear Hannah and Sirius starting into an argument, but it was all a blur. The last things she saw before it all went black were James's hazel eyes turning towards her...

And then she was suddenly aware again, though her vision was still blurred and the faint feeling remained. It took a moment for her to notice that she was leaning her head firmly into James's strong chest. His gentle hand was supporting her by the elbow while the other arm was wrapped around her waist to stop her from collapsing to the ground. Surprised and thoroughly embarrassed, Lily jolted out of James's grip, but regretted it instantly, for her head spun wildly to the point where she was unstable on her feet. In a flash, James was next to her and had grabbed her arms again, steadying her.

"Geroff," she heard herself say.

James gave a laugh. "Just sit down over here..."

And before she knew it, he had guided her over to the next free bed and she was seated, the nausea still well in play. She let her head fall against the pillow and stayed there for a moment, trying to gather herself and waiting for the sickness to pass. At last, it was bearable, and she lifted her head. She could see a little more clearly now, when she sat up, but just to be safe, she rested her forehead in her palm.

"Are you alright?" James asked in a tone of genuine concern that shocked Lily, even in the state she was in.

"Yeah," she replied feebly. She felt the awkwardness set in when she noticed that he was seated next to her on the bed; not exceedingly close, but close enough to make Lily feel a tad uncomfortable. "Why are you here?"

James hesitated, and for a moment Lily felt a little guilty for snapping at him. But when he spoke, his voice didn't show any signs of being offended. "Well, somebody had to stop you from falling, didn't they? And the others didn't seem to be paying much attention to you."

"Well, thanks, I guess," Lily said without looking at him.

"What happened to her?" Madam Pomfrey asked when she walked by.

"She fainted when she saw the blood," James explained. "She can't stand it."

"How do you know?" Lily asked him, puzzled.

"How would I not? Nobody's going to forget the time in fourth year you bolted out of Potions when we were working with Thestral blood."

"That bad, was it?" Lily replied with a weak laugh, embarrassed by the memory. It came back to her with surprising clarity; the moment she had picked up the vial, she had had to put it down again and run from the classroom before it could really get to her. The trouble was, most of the class didn't have a clue what she was running from – to them, the blood was completely invisible. But to Lily, who had seen her grandmother fade away in a Muggle hospital bed, it was there, dark and red and oozing and... _ugh_. She stopped right there to spare herself the return of the nausea.

"I meant to tell you," said James all of a sudden, reminding Lily that he was there. "Dumbledore wanted to see us about something after the Hogsmeade trip."

"Really? What?"

"I don't have clue."

"What time?"

"One thirty."

"That's in five minutes!"

"Then we'd better get going. Are you sure you can walk?"

"I'm fine."

Without another word, the two of them got up and left the Hospital Wing. Lily was grateful for the silence, but it gave her time – too much time – to think about what had just happened. She was thankful for his help, of course, but in a way, it scared her. Not his presence, exactly, but the fact that she was becoming almost _comfortable_ in it. Admittedly, she did feel awkward sitting near him, but not in the way she used to.

And now, for the first time ever, she let her thoughts drift down that path for a moment. Was there a slight possibility that she might _like_ James Potter? A year ago, the idea would have been unfathomable. But now, things were different. _He _was different. _Lily_ was different.

And so, it seemed, were her feelings towards him.

* * *

The ending's a bit (okay, more than a bit) cheesy, but I thought it worked. Please leave a review if you have time. The next chapter should be out shortly – I'm a bit obsessed with this fanfiction right now, which should hopefully work to your advantage. :)


	9. Close Quarters

**Plot:** The infamous Marauders weren't alone in their love for pranking. In fact, they often had their butts kicked by a bunch of girls. Now, this is it. Seventh year. Four girls, four boys. Two opposing pranking teams. One hell of a battle to be won.

**Disclaimer:** Sad as it may be, I am not J.K. Rowling in disguise, and therefore I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters or themes involved. (I do, however, own Jamie, Hannah and Regan and most elements of this specific plot—so I'd appreciate it if no poaching occurred. Thanks.)

**WARNING (please read): **This is the unedited version, meaning I wrote it a few years ago when my skill level sucked and I had no idea how to properly structure a story. So if you'll please ignore the terrible grammar, dodgy sentence structure, OOC-ness, plot holes, canonical inconsistencies and general immaturity of this whole chapter while I plough my way through all this editing work, that would be greatly appreciated. :) I'm in the process of fixing up all the chapters right now, but you'll have to be patient, because (as you can probably tell just by reading a couple of sentences below) fixing this stuff up takes a lot of time and effort.

* * *

**Chapter 9 – Close Quarters**

"Mint humbug," James said in a clear voice, and the all-too-familiar stone gargoyle lept aside. "After you."

Lily gave him a weak smile and stepped forward, letting the moving staircase pull her upwards. She was still unsure of how to react to this sudden kindness he was showing. Her head was still spinning, but this sensation had nothing to do with the nausea she had previously experienced; it had everything to do with the change she was seeing in James Potter.

At the top of the staircase, Lily knocked gently on the headmaster's door. It opened in an instant, and Professor Dumbledore looked up, smiling from behind his spectacles. "Ah," he said lightly. "Wonderful. Have a seat." He gestured at two cushioned wooden chairs on the other side of his desk. Lily sat down quietly in one and James took the other. They both stared forward at Dumbledore, who said nothing for a moment. After a moment Lily realized that he was taking in the sight of them – they were still quite soaked from the snowball fight, and their robes and hair were in frightful condition. Lily drew in a sharp breath of anticipation, expecting him to scold them in some way. But he simply gave them a calm smile.

"Another infamous battle between the Marauders and the Rogues, I presume?" he asked, sounding genuinely interested for reasons Lily could not understand. "What was it this time?"

Both Lily and James hesitated, glancing questioningly at each other. Then James answered slowly. "A snowball fight." was all he said.

Lily expected the professor to be confused by this – it was, in fact, the wrong season for snow – but instead he simply said to them, "Ah, always the creative ones."

Dumbledore's reactions to the ongoing dispute between the two groups never ceased to puzzle Lily, and she sensed that James was not quite in understanding either. The headmaster seemed almost _supportive_ of their fighting. This came across as very absurd to the students; after all, in his authoritative position, it seemed more than likely that he should be trying to settle things between the students, instead of encouraging them. But even so, the Marauders and the Rogues appreciated his apparent enjoyment of their warfare, as it meant that they had one less reprimanding teacher on their backs. McGonagall alone was quite enough to cover that department.

"I must say I am very sorry to hear of what happened to your friend Miss Tain. It was most unfortunate. I have sent her my sympathies, and I do hope she likes Drooble's gum." the headmaster was looking at Lily as he said this, and she nodded at him in return.

Dumbledore cleared his throat. "As you have probably guessed, I invited both of you here today to discuss your positions as Head Girl and Boy." his eyes were alight with something that Lily interpreted as excitement, and this disturbed her a little. Did this mean that he was anxiously awaiting the result of this strange pairing? "Have a sherbet lemon," he added, indicating a small bowl of yellow sweets in the middle of his desk. Lily took one, despite her suspicion that they were only a ploy to lighten the mood.

"I assume Professor McGonagall explained most of your duties while you were aboard the train?" the headmaster asked them, although his expression indicated that he already knew the answer. Lily nodded quickly, as did James. "Well, there are a few matters that I still must discuss with you."

He paused, taking a sherbet lemon from the bowl and putting it in his mouth. He savoured it for a moment, and then swallowed, picking up his speech where he left off. "To begin with, I must inform you that there will be several events that require planning on your part,"

"Events, Professor?" Lily asked. She was aware that as a head student, there would be organizing involved. But it interested her to find out exactly what sort of things – and how many, for that matter – they would be needing to plan. It also worried her that she might end up discussing some sort of ball, and this was something that she thought would be quite difficult with somebody like James.

"For instance," said Dumbledore with a smile. "We will be needed an event of sorts to entertain us on Halloween evening. Also, Professor McGonagall and I have discussed planning something new for Christmas time. The staff are getting a little tired of the same old feast, you see. We will, however, hand this brainstorm over to you when the time comes."

Lily shot a worried expression at James, who returned it.

"Also," Dumbledore continued. "We have decided that it would be in our best interest to allow each of you to plan your own special event to take place at some time this year." This intrigued Lily. She had never thought of planning something on her own before. A small smile unintentionally to her face; she and her friends could have a lot of fun with this.

Without warning, Dumbledore stood up. "Now," he said to them. "If you would both follow me, I must show you something."

They both got up as well, and when the professor walked towards the office door, they followed. He led them down the staircase, out into the corridors and up to the second floor. There, he halted in front of a tall double door. It had ornate designs carved into the wood and the brass knobs were glimmering in the dim light provided by the lanterns on the walls. But the doors themselves were not what sparked Lily's interest; it was the little white strip nailed to each one that caught her eye. Each had a few words printed neatly onto it in solid black ink – and it wasn't until Lily stepped a little closer that she read them properly. On the first was written: _James Edward Potter – Head Boy_, and on the second: _Lily Nora Evans – Head Girl_.

"The password is _Extremo Otium_," he said casually, and the door swung open at the words.

"Is this...?" Lily began, but her words were cut short when she glimpsed the scene in front of her.

"This, Miss Evans and Mr. Potter, is the Heads' Common Room."

Lily had heard previous Head students speak of this place, but no amount of talk could prepare her for what she saw. The room was enormous, with magnificent golden and scarlet decorations – no doubt set that way due to the Gryffindor house colours. The walls were a pale gold colour, and the light from the extravagant crystal chandelier above them reflected off of them, causing them to sparkle brilliantly. There was a roaring fire place down at one end of the room, and in proximity of that there was a long red couch and two matching armchairs, with a glass coffee table on a mat in front of these pieces of furniture. In the centre of the room, directly under the chandelier, stood a rectangular table that was a fair size. It had eight chairs around it – Lily knew at once that Dumbledore had predicted how much time their friends would be spending in here with them. At the other end of the room there were two desks, each with a lamp on one side and what looked like a small box of quills and ink on the other. And finally, at the end of the room opposite the fireplace, Lily could see two passageways leading up spiral staircases.

"You'll find your private dormitories through there," Dumbledore explained, pointing towards the doorways that Lily was gaping at. "You are not expected to stay in this room at all times, but if you would like to, or if you find that you need some quiet time, you are quite welcome to do so."

Neither Lily nor James said a single word. They were both too busy staring around at the stunning room. Dumbledore was quiet as well for a few moments, most likely allowing them time to absorb their surroundings and get over the shock. Finally the headmaster spoke.

"Please, stay as long as you like. Take a look around. After all, this room belongs to the two of you. Personally, I must return to my office. Have a splendid afternoon." With that, he walked off, his swift footsteps echoing quietly off the stone floor of the corridor.

"Wow," James said a moment later. "I knew they favoured the Head Boy and Girl here, but this is just... incredible."

"Yeah," Lily replied. She was still gazing in wonder at the room before her.

"Shall we look around?" James suggested.

Lily wasn't so sure how to respond. A little while earlier, she and James had been exchanging civil, comfortable conversation. But spending any more time with him would probably be pushing it. "I think I'm gonna go check out my dorm upstairs," she decided, and walked briskly through the room to climb the marble staircase.

"Suit yourself," James laughed. "But just so you know, there's a pile of Honeydukes things here. And if you leave me alone with all that sugar, there won't be any left by the time you get back."

"I'll survive," said Lily with an attempted smile. Then she turned around and continued on her way to the dormitory.

Lily's bedroom upstairs was just as immaculate as the area downstairs, but it had a more personal feel to it, Lily noticed. Against one wall of the octagonal room, there was a double four-poster bed with a smooth, green and white spread. The pillows were a darker forest green and the curtains were opaque. The rest of the room was fairly bare, except for a little table against one wall, a moderately sized closet and a door leading to the bathroom. The dormitory wasn't oversized, but it had the perfect amount of space for her and her friends, and this was all that Lily really cared about at the moment. She had a feeling that she would be spending a lot of time in the Heads' room – mostly because of the fact that she liked it so much – but she would prefer to spend her nights in the Gryffindor tour with the others. Living in close quarters with James at all hours would probably stir up problems, and as Lily was still not so sure about her attitude towards the boy, she figured it would be best not to spend too much time with him at this stage. Besides, what would her friends think if she was constantly living in the same room as the very same person she had hated with passion ever since first year?

The thought of this provoked other thoughts to enter Lily's head, and as she slumped down onto her new bed, she thought this over. It seemed as though she was getting a little ahead of herself. She didn't even know that James really wanted to be friends. For all she knew, he was probably just being polite. But on the other hand, the way he had acted in the hospital wing, comforting her until she had recovered from fainting, it had seemed... well, more than polite, anyway.

In a situation like this, there was only one way to end her confusion. She would have to talk to her friends about it. Satisfied with her decision, Lily stood up and walked back down the staircase. When she entered the common room, she was greeted with a: "Catch this!" from James, who was sitting one of the armchairs by the fire, sorting through what Lily assumed was the pile of items from Honeydukes he had mentioned before. Lily caught the small, pentagonal box that he tossed her, and took a look at it; it was a chocolate frog.

"Thanks," she said, smiling at him. He smiled back, but then turned around quickly and ran a hand through his messy hair. Lily blushed.

"I'm off to the hospital wing," Lily told him briskly. "I'll see you later."

"Bye," James turned around and waved just as she ran out the door. She smiled.

Outside, Lily closed the door and stopped, expelling the breath she had been holding in for quite some time. Shaking her head in attempt to bring herself back to reality, Lily hurried off down the corridor and didn't stop until she reached the hospital wing.

When she walked through the door, she could already tell that Regan was awake; her sarcastic voice was carrying across the entire room, and Madam Pomfrey was stomping towards her bed with an angry look on her face.

"What did that idiot think he was doing? I'm telling you, as soon as I get out of this place, I'm gonna drop a boulder on his head! How would he like that?"

"Be quiet, Miss Tain! You need to rest!" came Madam Pomfrey's sharp voice. Lily stifled a laugh. It seemed that Regan was already back to her normal self.

"Hey, it's Lils!" Hannah called out when Lily approached the bed. She and Regan had made themselves comfortable on the end of Regan's bed, sitting next to one another with their knees tucked up to their chests. Regan was in an awkward half lying down, half sitting up position, which Lily guessed was a compromise to please both herself and Madam Pomfrey.

"Where were you?" Regan said, folding her arms and took on an exaggeratedly pouty expression. "You left me all alone!"

"Hey!" Jamie burst out defensively. Hannah put on a tragic, wounded expression that was just as outrageous as Regan's; Regan gave a small laugh to indicate that she was kidding, and Hannah's face morphed back into a pleasant smile. The two of them collapsed into a fit of unexplained laughter.

"Dumbledore wanted to see James and me in his office," Lily told them, raising her eyebrows at them once they had pulled themselves together. "And then he showed us to the Heads' Common Room."

Jamie gave a gasp of delight before her face fell. Lily knew she still hadn't quite gotten over the fact that she had missed out on being Head Girl. Lily felt a little guilty at the disappointment this was causing her friend, but also reminded herself that Jamie was lucky to miss out on the demanding responsibilities that came with the role.

"I bet it's beautiful," Jamie said longingly. "You're so lucky, Lily."

"Hey, you guys are always welcome to come in there. In fact, I was thinking..." Lily smiled a mischievous smile at her friends, who seemed to interpret the message immediately.

"A Rogue sleepover!" Hannah squealed with excitement, leaping off the bed.

"Yes!" Jamie, too, jumped from the edge of the bed, rushing over to Lily and Hannah. Soon the girls found themselves with their arms around each other, jumping up and down girlishly like second years. They laughed in spite of themselves until Regan cut in.

"Thanks a lot for leaving me out!"

"Poor, crippled Regan," said Hannah, shaking her head.

"Don't you mean Re_gin_?" Jamie started laughing uncontrollably before she even finished speaking. Hannah joined in, but Regan looked somewhere between hostile and disbelieving.

Confused, Lily wondered, "What on earth are you talking about?"

"She hasn't seen the card!" Hannah exclaimed, still hysterical.

"What card?" Lily's question didn't need answering, for Jamie, quick as a flash, had yanked from the table and placed into Lily's hands a small piece of paper folded in half that was a revolting shade of puce. With a gasp of delight and incredulity, she opened the card, and revealed a simple message scrawled in metallic, silver ink.

_Dear Regin,_

_Sorry for hitting you with a rock._

_From Pete._

Lily laughed out loud. Jamie and Hannah seemed to collapse into giggles in front of her, and even Regan couldn't stop a small laugh from escaping her mouth.

"Petey Pettigrew's in _looooooove _with you!" Hannah squealed, causing Jamie's laughter to elevate to a higher volume and pitch. Lily giggled, and Regan shook her head.

"He's a pathetic little wimp, did you know that?" Regan wasn't blushing at all, which told Lily that her words were very truthful. "That ratbag had better be careful, or he might just find his head stuffed inside my cauldron. When it's full."

"Did you ever think that maybe he has just a little crush on you?" Lily asked Regan, sitting down next to her. The girl snorted.

"Well he certainly has a problem with spelling," she said, artfully avoiding the topic. "What kind of freak can't spell Re-_gan_?"

"He _did _explain that Sirius put a jinx on his quill," Jamie reminded her.

"As _if_ that's what really happened! He's just plain thick, that's all."

They laughed altogether. Then they were silent, and Lily had time to think once again. She contemplated her dilemma for a moment, weighing up her options. Then she made her decision; she would have to tell her friends about it – about James, and his newfound maturity, and her own possible (_just_ possible) feelings for him – and what better time was there than now?

"Guys," she started, speaking slowly and quietly. "There's something I need to talk to you about."

"What's up, Lils?" Jamie turned her attention wholely to Lily. Hannah and Regan listened in as well.

"Well..." she couldn't quite find a logical way of putting it, and so it all came out in a hurried mess of words. "You know that - well, you don't really because... anyway, James – sorry, _Potter -_ has been acting strangely since the beginning of the year. I suppose strange wouldn't really be the word to use but maybe just... mature. And he seems to be talking to me a lot more and... well..."

"Spit it out, Lily!" Regan urged. She was sitting bolt upright now – the other two perched on the very edge of the bed – and all three of them were looking at her with wide eyes and confused expressions.

"Okay... well, I think that maybe... no, I can't say it!" But the anxious looks on her friends' faces were enough to keep her going. "I think that maybe... I might _like _him."

The gasps that followed had been expected by Lily, but even so, they hit her hard when they arrived. At first she hid her face, but when she looked up, she could see that they were all looking at her as if she had just announced the end of the world as they knew it.

"Sorry," Lily hurried to say. "Okay, maybe I'm overreacting. Maybe it's not quite like that-"

"Don't apologize, Lily!" Jamie, apparently, was calmer than Lily had thought. "It's not your fault if you... well, have feelings for him."

"I know," Lily sighed. "But I thought that you four might not be happy with me. I mean, he _is_ a Marauder, after all. And they've done a lot of nasty things to us in the past."

"Lily, we'll support you no matter what decisions you make." Hannah said soothingly, getting up to rub her friend's arm gently.

"Even if they're stupid ones." Regan added from where she sat.

"The point is, we're not going to go against you just because we have a grudge against some boys," Hannah went on.

"I think what's going on between us and the Marauders is a little more than a grudge," Lily laughed.

"Lily," Jamie said. "If you like James then go for it, I suppose. It's just that..."

"We want you to be careful," continued Hannah. "As you said, he _is_ a Marauder, and they've been pretty nasty to us."

"He might just be trying to lead you on and lure you into one of their pranks," Regan warned. "It's impossible to tell, with them. Of course, most of the time they _are_ being cruel, but you know..."

"That isn't helping, Re_gin_," said Hannah with a short, whimsical laugh. When she turned back to Lily, her blonde curls bounced fluidly over her shoulder, and Lily could see a beautiful optimism that she had not seen in Hannah for some time, and couldn't help but smile. "Do you think he likes you back?"

"I don't know. I guess... maybe."

"Does his... maturity, or whatever... does it seem genuine to you?"

Lily paused, and let out a length sigh. "Yes, I think so."

"Then I believe your choice is clear." Hannah winked.

Lily sighed again. Jamie smiled encouragingly at her, and Regan looked at her with a friendly, scrutinizing expression on her face. Lily was incredibly relieved; it felt like huge weight off her shoulders now that she had spoken to the other Rogues about it. But even though she had their approval, she still wasn't sure what approach to take. She had never been the most confident of people, and this made situations like this very challenging for her. But the thing was, she never _had_ been in a situation like this. It wasn't every day you realized you had feelings for your worst enemy – in the sane world, at least.

She wondered if maybe Regan's slightly pesimistic suspicions might hold some truth. A chill ran down her spine when she remembered their first day on the Hogwarts Express and James's apparent friendliness. What if this was just another situation like that one? It would be twice as infuriating and embarrassing if she fell for a trick like that again.

Regan interrupted her fretful thoughts, and for that, Lily was grateful.

"Quick," she said in a mere whisper. "While Madam Pomfrey's gone. I'm getting out of here."

"Regan! You can't just leave!" Jamie said incredulously.

"I hate this place!" the girl complained, pulling back the covers. "Besides, she already healed me! Why should I waste away in this place when we could be getting ready for our slumber party?"

They all giggled and turned towards the door when Regan got up to join them. Quietly, they hurried out of the room and closed the door behind them. Without slowing down, they ran down a few sets of stairs until they came to the ground floor of the castle. They stopped there, panting from their long run.

"Hannah and I will snag the food from the kitchens," Regan offered. "Do you two reckon you could get that old stereo Slughorn keeps in his storage cupboard?"

"No problem," Lily replied with a wink.

And with that, they were off. Jamie and Lily hurried off to get Slughorn's stereo, and the others were on their way to the kitchens. Lily smiled as she went, realizing that this was exactly what she needed to distract her from her thoughts – some quality time with her best friends, just the four of them, without a single distraction from the Marauders to complicate things. For the first time since she had arrived at school, Lily felt as though she might finally be able to forget her worries, even if their absence would only last one night.

* * *

Another cheesy ending. I know this chapter was a little bit all over the place, but I don't think my brain was working properly when I wrote it. Please leave me a review and tell me what you think.

I won't be able to write tomorrow, so don't expect an update until the day after, or possibly even the day after that. I'm not losing interest, I've just got things to do. Thanks for reading:)


	10. Not Normal

**Plot:** The infamous Marauders weren't alone in their love for pranking. In fact, they often had their butts kicked by a bunch of girls. Now, this is it. Seventh year. Four girls, four boys. Two opposing pranking teams. One hell of a battle to be won.

**Disclaimer:** Sad as it may be, I am not J.K. Rowling in disguise, and therefore I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters or themes involved. (I do, however, own Jamie, Hannah and Regan and most elements of this specific plot—so I'd appreciate it if no poaching occurred. Thanks.)

**WARNING (please read): **This is the unedited version, meaning I wrote it a few years ago when my skill level sucked and I had no idea how to properly structure a story. So if you'll please ignore the terrible grammar, dodgy sentence structure, OOC-ness, plot holes, canonical inconsistencies and general immaturity of this whole chapter while I plough my way through all this editing work, that would be greatly appreciated. :) I'm in the process of fixing up all the chapters right now, but you'll have to be patient, because (as you can probably tell just by reading a couple of sentences below) fixing this stuff up takes a lot of time and effort.

* * *

**Chapter 10 – Not Normal**

After hauling Slughorn's stereo up into Lily's private dormitory, she and Jamie stored their wands in their robes – which were still quite damp – and collapsed onto the double bed with concurrent sighs. It wasn't until then that Lily realized just how tired she was. After all, it had been a terribly long and exhausting day. Her eyelids drooped threateningly as the long flow of memories of the day's events began to cross her tired mind. She pushed the thoughts away, forcing herself to remain conscious for the slumber party she and the Rogues had planned.

Next to Lily, Jamie looked painfully close to sleep. Her thick eyelashes closed over the calming blue of her irises, although her eyes still looked strangely alert.

"Long day, huh," Jamie sighed, stretching her arms over her head.

"Just a little," Lily's slight chuckle merged with an enormous yawn.

Jamie laughed. "I can see that's an understatement."

When Hannah and Regan walked into the room, carrying an impressively large basket of goods between them and radiating hyperactivity all over, they immediately dashed to Lily and Jamie.

"Not sleeping already, are you?" Hannah asked wryly, tugging at Lily's leg.

"You're ruining the party!" Regan complained. By the unusually upbeat tone in her voice, Lily could tell that she was extremely enthusiastic about their first slumber party of the year. It was that or one other possibility; that she and Hannah had already been into whatever stash of sugar they had managed to smuggle from the kitchens.

Lily groaned as Hannah dragged her right off the bed and onto the floor. She rested her head back on the side of the mattress for what time she had left, before reluctantly letting the bouncy girl pull her to her feet. Standing up, Lily regained some of the consciousness she had been slowly losing. Regan had managed to bring Jamie to her senses, too, and now the four girls stood facing each other in the centre of the room; two of them practically jumping with anticipation while the others tried hard to stay on their feet.

"We need showers," Hannah pointed out at once, when they were gathered. Everyone laughed as they glimpsed the others; Hannah's curls were in such disarray that it was hard to tell where the mess started and where it came to an end; Jamie had a dark smudge of dirt across her left cheek and Lily's robes were torn in several places, while Regan's forehead and black hair were stained with dry blood.

After a quick round of "Nogtail-Doxy-Crup" - a hilariously stupid and juvenile variation on the Muggle game 'rock-paper-scissors' that had been taught to them by Professor Flitwick in first year – to decide on the lucky girl who had first dibs on the shower, the remaining three set to work on arranging the beds. As Regan had been the lucky winner, it was Hannah, Jamie and Lily who were left to set things up.

"So how are we going to do this?" Hannah asked the others, rolling out one of the sleeping bags they had brought upstairs. "The floor's pretty solid."

"Leave it to me," Lily smiled, and stepped forward, pulling out her wand. "Cresco lectus!" she annunciated, pointing her charm at the sleeping bag on the floor, which now started to expand at an incredible rate. It rose of the ground a little as the bottom filled out into the shape of a mattress. Hannah's expression was, at first, transfixed and amazed, but soon returned to the casual smile that was usually present on her face.

"Trust you to come up with something," she said to Lily, and let herself fall onto the newly made bed.

"Now you don't have to worry about the floor," Lily assured her, sitting down to check the softness for herself. Sure enough, it was as comfortable as anything.

Lily cast the spell on the other sleeping bags while Hannah and Jamie – using a levitation charm – moved the 'borrowed' stereo into the corner of the room. Together they cast several other spells on the room, mostly executed by Lily and Jamie. By the time Regan emerged from her lengthy shower, wearing a black tank top and plaid burgundy pyjama pants, the room was dazzling all over. Multihued lights glanced off the usually cream-coloured walls, and tinted opaque curtains of different colours hung from the ceiling, closing off a cozy, round area in the centre of the room that the girls had filled with a mountain of pillows. For security measures, the girls had placed a charm on the door to keep out all unwanted intruders - namely four extremely annoying troublemakers – and a silencing spell on the walls to combat eavesdropping.

When all four girls were cleaned up and dressed in their pyjamas, they settled into the mass of cushions in the middle of the room, feeling completely at ease for the first time since their arrival five days ago. Lily let her head sink back into the soft pillows and closed her eyes for a moment. She might have dozed off for a second or two, but before she could drift into the peaceful realms of sleep, she was shaken back to reality by Hannah and Regan, both of whom did not appear tired at all. Lily groaned, but sat up anyway.

"Don't go to sleep _now_, lazy bones! We've got a whole slumber party ahead of us!" were Regan's exuberant words.

"Have a cauldron cake, that'll brighten you up a bit," Hannah suggested, and passed her one of the tempting sweets out of a small box perched precariously on top of the pile of food that overflowed from the basket she and Regan had brought up from the kitchens.

Lily thanked her and bit into it, immediately feeling more alert after the intake of sugar. They all spent a few minutes sorting through the goodies in the basket, sampling whatever tickled their fancy. It turned out that Hannah and Regan had managed to snag quite a variety of things from the house elves, including treacle tarts, date pudding, an endless supply of chocolate frogs, pumpkin juice, apple cider and even hot cocoa.

"Anybody for music?" Hannah asked excitedly as soon as they were settled – or as settled as four girls who had just eaten a boatload of sweets could be.

"Sure," Lily smiled. Jamie nodded vigorously, but Regan grimaced.

"I bet you Slughorn's got horrible taste," she warned. Jamie laughed it off.

"Don't worry, I got Dane to send me some of my favourites," Hannah told them. Lily smiled at the mention of her friend's big teddy-bear of a brother; Dane was twenty one years old, and through their many visits to the Milton residence in Godric's Hollow during the school holidays, he had become almost as much of a brother to them as he was to Hannah, his blood relative.

After rummaging around for a moment in her blue backpack, Hannah retrieved stack of about ten CDs. She got up and inserted every one of them into the machine (there were benefits of a magical stereo), then called out to the others.

"What do you want to listen to first?"

"Anything, as long as it's not Celestina Warbuck," Regan said decisively. Hannah pretended to look hurt before laughing.

"I get enough of that at home. Mum's a fanatic. Squeals like a hag, that one."

After settling on an album of rock music by the Weird Sisters, the girls settled back into their haven of cushions. They chatted amongst themselves for quite sometime, becoming lost in laughter and completely detached from their thoughts as a result of all the sweets they had eaten. Finally, they fell silent, but not for long; Hannah, it seemed, was intent on keeping them entertained at all times. As soon as nobody was speaking, she reached into her backpack once again and pulled out a small green vial. Lily recognized it at once, and gasped.

"Veritaserum?" she said incredulously. "What? Where did you...?"

"Slughorn's storage cupboard, yesterday morning," she announced proudly, twisting the cap back and forth as if the potion were a sacred substance and she was deciding whether or not the time was right to open it.

"Shame on you, Hannah!" Regan exclaimed with obvious sarcasm, unable to conceal her animation. Abandoning her cynicism, she spoke eagerly. "What's it for?"

"Have you ever heard of the game 'Truth or Dare?'" Hannah inquired with a cheeky grin on her face.

"Oh no." Lily, who had spent the first decade of her existance in a Muggle community, recognized the game at once. Innocent though it seemed, she was completely aware that, if translated to a magical version, this game would prove quite troublesome. Veritaserum, as the teachers had never ceased to stress, was not to be taken lightly. But taking things lightly seemed to be a specialty of Hannah's – she never got too worked up about anything.

At the mention of the unfamiliar game, both Jamie and Regan shook their heads; Regan's pure blood family had little contact with Muggles, and Jamie, a half blood, had inherited more general knowledge from her Father's magical side than the other. Lily was a little surprised that Hannah seemed to know of this truth-revealing game, as the girl also came from a family of straight wizards and witches. Then again, Hannah expressed interest in all sorts of things. Lily wouldn't put it beyond her to find out about things like this simply through reading a Muggle magazine.

"Would you care to explain, Lily, or shall I?" Hannah's grin, as impish as ever, remained on her face. Lily smiled and shook her head. "No?" Hannah went on, and then turned to the two girls who were still in the dark. "Well, basically, you get to choose whether you want to be dared or answer a question asked by one of the other players. Although in this case, we'll only be playing with the truth option." Already, Jamie and Regans faces were shifting with suspicion. This only seemed to egg Hannah on. "Seeing as a lot of people tend to be a little bit... untruthful, and the group we're playing with now certainly isn't going to win any rewards for playing fair, I decided that we needed a little bit of... assistance." She waved the vial in front of her. Regan shrieked with enthusiasm, but Jamie's face was worried.

"What kind of questions should we expect?" she asked hesitantly.

"Would it be any fun if you knew that beforehand?" Hannah folded her arms.

"I'm not sure about this..."

"Come on, Jame! Loosen up a little!"

Jamie expelled a small laugh and relaxed slightly in her spot on the pillows. "If you're sure," she said, narrowing her eyes in Hannah's direction.

"You have nothing to worry about, Jamie," the bubbly girl assured her. "Except maybe a lifetime of embarrassment..."

Lily laughed, even though she was somewhat disinclined to try this game. She couldn't be sure what she would end up telling her friends if she spilled her guts in front of them. Her indecisive feelings for James leapt to mind, but surely she couldn't admit to anything that she wasn't even sure about herself. Besides, even if she did admit to anything, it wasn't as though she was accustomed to keeping secrets from her friends in the first place.

"So, who wants to go first?" Hannah was bouncing up and down in anticipation. As expected, nobody responded. "Don't worry. We won't use much of the potion. It should only last a couple of minutes if we can measure out a small enough amount."

Another round of Nogtail-Doxy-Crup decided on the first victim, which turned out to be Regan. Reluctantly, the girl took added a minuscule drop to her pumpkin juice and guzzled the concoction very quickly. There wasn't much in the way of noticeable change other than her apparently severe vigilance. Hannah, predictably, was the first to ask Regan a question.

"What do you think of Peter Pettigrew?"

Lily's heart skipped a beat. She would have hated to be in Regan's position at that moment. Opinions of the Marauders were a touchy subject, she knew, but now was as good a time as any to take advantage of the situation and find out what their friends thought about their mortal enemies. Regan's mouth opened at once, even though her eyes showed signs of unwillingness.

"Pathetic git. Suck up. Stupid, useless follower," she said, and Lily was pleasantly surprised, until she added, "I feel a little sorry for him."

The other three howled with laughter at this remark, and Regan blushed while keeping the straight face induced by the Veritaserum. Next, it was Lily's turn to ask. She thought for a moment before she came up with an ideal question.

"In first year," she began. "Was it you who stole the Sorting Hat from Dumbledore's office?"

"Yes." Regan muttered.

"Can I ask her why?" Lily directed this question at Hannah, who nodded briskly. "Why, Regan?" Lily was really starting to enjoy this game.

"I was trying to get Pettigrew moved into Slytherin."

Thunderous laughs echoed around the room once again as Regan's face became even redder.

"Who was your biggest crush in sixth year?" Jamie asked wistfully.

"Blaine Harlow." Regan buried her face in a pillow when the others started shrieking and babbling at each other.

"_Blaine_ _Harlow_?" Hannah had trouble getting the words out through her wild laughter. "Didn't you spend every minute of your spare time in third year coming up with new ways to hex him?"

"Yes. That was a cover up." Regan admitted unintentionally, her face still hidden.

After a few more minutes of harassment, Regan's truthfulness expired and was replaced by extreme outrage. She made sure to give each of them a good beating with the pillow she had been using to hide her embarrassment before she settled back down with a smug expression on her face.

"I've done my duty," she announced. "Now who's up next for super-humiliating confessions?"

Jamie was the next unfortunate prey that the game turned on. With all reluctance, she took a swig of the cocoa she was drinking, now infused with Veritaserum. Within the second, her face was straight and she was staring at them all attentively.

"My turn to go first," Lily volunteered, eager get the answer to a question she had long wanted to ask. Even though she was fairly sure she already knew her friend's response, she decided that confirmation would be useful. "Do you have feelings for Frank?"

"No." Jamie's reply came without a moment of hesitation, and a vague expression of horror flickered across her face, as if she was shocked by her own answer – she probably was, in fact, horrified that she would say something like this aloud.

"Nice to have that cleared up," Hannah giggled, patting her friend's hand comfortingly. "Now you have our full support if you want to dump him."

"Hannah!" Lily scolded her friend lightly.

"What?" Hannah feigned innocence. "My turn," she said quickly, cutting quickly past that topic. "Jamie, on a scale of one to ten, how jealous are you of Lily's position as Head Girl?"

Lily stopped breathing for a split second, fearing that this answer might cause unease between her and her friend. She knew that Jamie wouldn't let anything come between them – but she was also aware that her friend had hoped for every day leading up to seventh year that it would be her in this position. Expressing just how much she had been disappointed would only add to the guilt Lily felt and the awkwardness between them when the matter came up in a discussion. Lily sighed and reminded herself that Jamie was too kind a person to let such trivial jealousy diminish their friendship.

"Nine," Jamie replied.

"Why not ten?" Hannah was intrigued.

"Because I wouldn't want to be working with one of the Marauders that often."

"Ah." Hannah settled back into her spot, seemingly satisfied with the information she had gotten out of her friend.

Regan sat up immediately, her sapphire eyes gleaming with interest. "Speaking of the Marauders..." she started. "I think I have the perfect question for you, Jame."

Jamie gulped without taking her eyes off of Regan.

"Have you ever had – or, for that matter, do you currently have – feelings for one of the Marauders?"

This sparked interest among the girls. Lily leaned in closer, preparing to hear what she had desperately been wondering over the past few days. Was it... _normal_, for them to have feelings for their absolute foes? If not, Lily had thought, she must have something terribly wrong with her. But if Jamie admitted to something, then perhaps she wouldn't be so strange after all. Hannah and Regan edged closer to Jamie as well, peering at her intently through wide eyes.

Jamie's face turned a deep shade of crimson. Despite the potion that was working to push the answer out of her mouth, she seemed to stumble over her words in embarrassment. "I... I might – I mean, I guess I – sort of... like... Remus?" It came out sounding more like a question than a statement, but there was no doubt that this was her honest answer to the question – after all, Veritaserum never lied.

"R-Remus?" Lily stuttered, too shocked to speak clearly. Jamie nodded with a weak smile on her red face, clearly almost free of the truth potion's effects. Regan and Hannah gasped, both stunned into silence.

"When did this... I mean, when did you realize that you... you know." Lily managed only fragments of broken sentences.

Despite the fact that all traces of the Veritaserum were gone, Jamie answered Lily without objection, although she looked exceptionally mortified. "In January, sixth year, when we got paired together for that Herbology project," she explained. "I think it may have started sometime before then, but I guess I just didn't pick up on it."

"Wow."

"Lily and James... and now Jamie and Remus?" Hannah finally managed to utter. "This is definitely not normal." She let out a small laugh, but there was very little humour in her tone. Lily's stomach dropped at her words. _Not normal_. Those had been the very words she had decided were suitable when considering the situation.

"Not normal? This is wacko." Regan's tone, although sardonic as usual, appeased Lily a little, only because she could hear the lighter tone partially concealed underneath. "Marauders and Rogues? What's next, McGonagall and a hippogriff?"

"There's no need to be harsh about it," Jamie said quietly, her face hidden behind her folded arms on her knees. "Unless you really do hate us for it..."

"No, Jamie, it's not that!" Hannah assured her, though her tone was oddly distant. "I just meant that... I suppose things have changed a lot this year, that's all." Their friend said no more, but simply resigned to laying back on her pillows with a deeply thoughtful expression on her face that confused Lily to no end. Hannah obviously had something else on her mind when this topic arose, but what could it be? Surely a friend as loyal and as comforting as her wouldn't overreact so something like this. But when it came to the Marauders and the Rogues and their legendary battle, Lily remembered, anything could be expected.

Suddenly, Regan broke out in song. "_All things change, when you don't expect them to,_" she recited in a wild, squealing, intentionally horrid voice that was obviously induced by the whole pack of chocolate frogs she had devoured earlier. At something like this, the girls could only laugh, despite the unease between them.

It was then that their giggles were interrupted by a slightly muffled noise – the raucous sound of masculine laughter, definitely out of place in a girly haven like this one. She jumped up instantaneously, and she was not the only one to do so; the three others were on their feet in less than a second. They looked heedfully around the room, not one of them daring to speak. The laughter – sounding as though it was coming from the wall opposite to the window – continued until it was proceeded by a shushing sound and then absolute silence. The Rogues exchanged suspicious glances and, following Regan's lead, tiptoed soundlessly to the wall that seemed to be the source of the sound that was now gone.

Evidently acting on a spur-of-the-moment decision, Hannah raised her knuckles and gave the wall a quick rap, but her gesture was only met by three harsh glares of warning from the other girls and continued silence from the other side of the wall.

Lily, rather impatient, soon gave up and started looking around her once again. Maybe they had left the stereo on, and as a result of their sugar high, interpreted the lyrics as something completely different. But that didn't seem likely. The noise definitely couldn't have come from inside the room; that was a fact. But what if –

Her thoughts went no further. At the exact same time that a disturbing realization dawned on her, Lily spotted something on the far wall that confirmed her suspicions. James's dormitory was beyond that wall – she was sure of it. But, thanks Lily and Jamie's spellwork, there was a silencing charm protecting the entire room. There was no possible means of counteracting this charm, unless...

Lily moved closer to the wall, her eyes widening as she did. _Unless_, she thought. _Somebody put a hole in it_.

It was right there in the centre of the wall: a small silver ring through which a faint light shone. It was undoubtedly a peephole, and she knew just who was behind it.

"You _scumbags_!" she shouted, lunging towards the wall and aiming her exclamation directly at the hole. The other three girls turned very quickly and in an instant, they were at her side, looking at her anxiously.

There was one loud, tipsy laugh from the other side of the wall, but aside from that and an: "Ow! Prongsie, what'd you do that for?", they heard nothing. And then, all too suddenly, the hole darkened and a grey eye appeared out of the darkness, glinting with some kind of mischief or excitement. Lily's intake of breath then was sharp, and she did not let it out. Then, a voice – excited and a little garbled – came through the wall.

"Hello, girls."

* * *

Oooooooh... cliffhanger...

Let me rephrase that: Ooooooooh... stupid, cheesy, easily guessed "cliffhanger"...

Aside from my attempt at a dramatic ending, I think that chapter went alright. Please, tell me what you think by leaving a review :)


	11. Stirring Things Up

**Plot:** The infamous Marauders weren't alone in their love for pranking. In fact, they often had their butts kicked by a bunch of girls. Now, this is it. Seventh year. Four girls, four boys. Two opposing pranking teams. One hell of a battle to be won.

**Disclaimer:** Sad as it may be, I am not J.K. Rowling in disguise, and therefore I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters or themes involved. (I do, however, own Jamie, Hannah and Regan and most elements of this specific plot—so I'd appreciate it if no poaching occurred. Thanks.)

**WARNING (please read): **This is the unedited version, meaning I wrote it a few years ago when my skill level sucked and I had no idea how to properly structure a story. So if you'll please ignore the terrible grammar, dodgy sentence structure, OOC-ness, plot holes, canonical inconsistencies and general immaturity of this whole chapter while I plough my way through all this editing work, that would be greatly appreciated. :) I'm in the process of fixing up all the chapters right now, but you'll have to be patient, because (as you can probably tell just by reading a couple of sentences below) fixing this stuff up takes a lot of time and effort.

* * *

**Chapter 11 - Stirring Things Up**

"Sirius, you twerp!" Lily snapped, glaring daggers at the eye she could see through the hole in the wall. Sirius – who Lily had assumed to be the owner of this eye – narrowed it with what looked like self-satisfaction. Deep, rumbling laughter that Lily could hear quite clearly tugged up at the corner of his eye.

"Don't let me interrupt!" Sirius said, his voice even louder than usual. "Go on with your... confessions, or whatever."

At this, Jamie gasped sharply, Hannah's mouth dropped open in shock, and Regan stormed over to the wall where Lily stood. Even Lily blushed a little, although she had already been able to guess as much; the Marauders had, most likely, heard every word that the abnormally honest girls had said after taking the Veritaserum. It was a great relief that Lily's turn had not come before they had discovered the eavesdroppers in the other room – who knew what she would have admitted to under such an influence?

"Let me through," Regan growled, and Lily willingly stepped aside to let her friend take her place in front of the peephole. "You." Regan's snarl was strong and menacing. "You and your buddies. Get your sorry arses down to Common Room NOW! We have a LOT of talking to do!"

"Is that a threat, Tain?" Sirius chuckled.

Hannah took over, putting her head right next to Regan's. "You bet it is," her voice was sharp and rather terrifying. "And for the sake of being threatening, I'll add to it. If you don't meet us in the Common Room in thirty seconds, you'll be hit with a thousand hexes before you can say dungbomb. What the heck, you'll be hit by a thousand dungbombs before you can say dungbomb!"

Lily heard Sirius laugh again, but not quite so confidently as before – he was obviously stung by her words to some extent.

"Fine, Roguies," he said, some of the edge gone from his deep voice. "It's a date. In thirty seconds. See you there."

But they didn't need thirty seconds – after only about ten, eight teenagers were assembled in the Heads' Common Room. Four of them were tense, glowering with much severity at the others, who were silent but continued to exchange puckish glances. Lily, although infuriated by the Marauders, was beginning to feel a little exposed, in nothing but a too-short singlet and a skimpy pair of light green pyjama shorts. She tactfully avoided James's eyes, and turned instead to Sirius – judging by the energetic look to his face and the fact that he was jumping from side to side while the others were standing completely still, he had consumed a higher quota of sugar than the others, and would therefore be less intuitive, and would probably remember little of this come morning.

"Have you ever heard of privacy?" she spat at him.

"Dunno. Mighta read it once or twice in a book... what does it mean?"

"You twit!" Hannah shouted. "Don't play stupid! We already know you're the dumbest thing on the planet."

"Are you an alien then? From outer space?" Sirius seemed to thrive off of Hannah's fury. "I always thought you were a little strange..."

"ARGH!" Hannah grabbed a pillow from the couch, and, with surprising force and accuracy, flung it at Sirius's head. Despite her valiant effort, it didn't seem to bother him. He only laughed.

"Now now," Sirius said with a smirk. "Play nice, Hanniekins,"

"What? And just let you go along with your malicious attacks? As if!"

"Malicious?" Sirius put on a fake pout, earning a hard scowl from Hannah. "We're not being meanies, are we?"

Hannah's hand snapped to her pocket, but Jamie leapt to her side and grasped her friend's elbow – gasping and whispering a harsh "No!" into her ear – before she could pull out her wand and curse Sirius into oblivion as Lily suspected she had wanted to. Hannah's eyes were ablaze with anger, and Lily stepped forward in attempt to calm things down.

"Listen," she said, trying to keep her voice as even as possible. "We're not here to argue. We just want an explanation from the four of you."

"Alright," said James, and Lily's stopped breathing when he answered. "What do you want to know?"

She could tell that he was trying to remain mature, but because of the grin on his face it was also quite obvious that he was enjoying himself at as the Rogues became angrier and angrier. _Ugh_. Lily thought with disgust. _One minute he's nice, the next minute he's pure evil. Why can't he just pick one and stick to it?_

When she replied to him, she didn't look him directly in the eyes. She felt that if she did, and found that he, too, was looking at her, she might blush or do something else embarrassing.

"Why were you listening in on our conversation?" Lily spat at the four of them, unable to contain her aggravation at this point. "Do you have no sense of confidentiality?"

Sirius snickered, and then a wide, false smile spread across his face. "Not when it comes to our favouritest girls in the world!"

"I'm glad you're so fond of us," Hannah growled.

"Oh, I didn't mean you, Milton. Who would be fond of somebody as hideous as you?"

Lily could have sworn she saw a flicker of hurt cross her friend's face, but even if she did, it quickly disappeared. Hannah's expression became solid and fierce.

"Cut it out, Black." she glowered at him. "Or I'll shove your head in Myrtle's toilet."

"A little cranky today, aren't you? I wonder what might be the cause of that..."

"I don't know," Hannah was shouting now. "Maybe... YOU?"

"Thank you for acknowledging me, Hanniekins, but I think somebody's suffering from a good old case of jealousy."

"You think I'm jealous of _you_?"

"Why wouldn't you be?"

"Why would I?"

"Maybe because I'm devilishly handsome, and you're _butt ugly_?"

Sirius had gone too far; everybody seemed to know it. Even he pulled back a little after he shouted these words at Hannah. Lily winced; she knew Hannah well, and she knew that her usually optimistic friend would not take this lightly. Ever since second year, Sirius had, it seemed, been trying to make a point of firing insults at Hannah at every possible opportunity. In the beginning, they had been relatively harmless, but now things were getting out of hand. The moment Sirius had started abusing her with appearance-related comments, it had been clear that they were beginning to affect Hannah more than usual. Of course, she _did_ return clever, offensive comebacks, but Sirius's ego didn't seem to be quite as fragile as hers.

At the moment, Hannah's face was hard to read. Her eyes contained a number of emotions, and Lily recognized pain and fury as the most prominent of them. The girl's lower lip trembled a little, but it was difficult to tell whether she was shaking with anger or fighting back tears. Suddenly, Hannah burst out, enraged.

"I know you think I'm hideous, Black! And I know you hate me! Hell, I hate you too! But do you think you could just cool it for once? I don't need you insulting me twenty four seven." Tears were rolling freely down her face now, and she bit her lip. Her voice was horribly shaky as she practically whispered her concluding words. "I don't want to hear it."

With that, Hannah was gone. She turned and headed for the staircase with her head down. Lily heard a few quiet sobs as her friend was walking up the stairs, and this pained her. She had never seen Hannah so upset about anything – even Sirius's cruel remarks.

She looked towards the culprit himself and glared. "I suppose you're satisfied now?"

Sirius didn't reply at first. His brow was furrowed, and his eyes downcast. There was a trace of guilt on his face, but he was obviously trying to conceal it with a straight expression. He mumbled incoherently, and Lily picked out something like: "She deserved it."

"Mate, that was going _way_ too far," James said sternly as he pulled his friend back, as if to restrain him from inflicting emotional damage on any of the other girls. Sirius was completely silent.

"Don't try and pretend you care!" Lily shouted at James. "You're the ones who got us into this argument in the first place!"

"Come off it, Lily," James said, a small, pleading smile on the corners of his lips. "It was just a bit of fun."

"Fun?" Lily exclaimed, incredulous. "You call eavesdropping on completely personal conversations a bit of _fun_? You are unbelievable!"

"Well, it is pretty funny hearing who you all have crushes..." Sirius started, but trailed off when James shot him a harsh glance.

"You've said enough, Padfoot."

"Sorry."

Lily rolled her eyes and looked at Remus and Peter. Both of them – just like Jamie and Regan – had not said a word throughout the entire conversation. Peter was looking rather glum, and his face was looking a little pink. Lily was hit with a pang of guilt when she remembered what Regan had said about him under the effects of the truth potion: "_Pathetic git_. _Suck up. Stupid, useless follower_.", she had said before expressing her pity for him. Of course these words would upset him – Lily had always had a supposition that Peter had feelings for Regan, and if this was true, then it would be all the more reason for him to be down.

Remus didn't look incredibly happy either, but he did not look quite so miserable as his stout friend. He appeared very uncomfortable – that was for sure – and even a little guilty. He also kept on glancing in Jamie's direction, his cheeks just the slightest bit flushed.

Lily sighed. Jamie admitting to liking Remus had been an enormous relief at the time – it meant that she wasn't alone, if she was correct in thinking that she might have a thing for James. But now that the Marauders knew, it was going to make things so much more difficult.

Then Lily gulped. All this time that they had been arguing with the Marauders, she had continually thanked goodness that her turn had never come in their game of truth or dare. She had been ever so grateful that she hadn't said anything embarrassing while they were all oblivious to the boys listening in on them. But now she realized that she had given something away (in actual fact, it was Hannah that said the words, but it was still going to have the same result). _"Lily and James... and now Jamie and Remus? This is definitely not normal." _

Without anybody noticing, Lily's entire confession had leaked out to the Marauders, and therefore, to James. What was she thinking? If she had just kept her mouth shut about her feelings in the first place, none of the information would have any chance of escaping. But now... now things were going to be a mess. She didn't know if she could cope with working next to James in Defense Against the Dark Arts, or in their next scheduled meeting, or for that matter, living in such close quarters. But maybe he hadn't heard that part. Maybe the Marauders had all been too busy laughing at some of the hilarious things Jamie and Regan had disclosed, and for that reason, had missed the part where Hannah mentioned 'Lily and James'...

She glanced quickly up at him, and noticed that he was grinning ever so slightly at her, almost sheepishly. She quickly turned away from him, blushing. Of course he knew. The Marauders – particularly James – were skilled eavesdroppers. They wouldn't miss a bit of information, even if it meant that they had to refrain from roaring with laughter. There was no doubt he had heard that part – in fact, there was no doubt that each and every one of them heard that part. Lily shuddered. How embarrassing.

Now was the time to escape, she decided. Although she still had much anger welled up inside her and she would very much like to lash out at the Marauders to free herself of it, she followed her better judgement and decided that the best option at this point would be to return to her dormitory and gather their bearings before things got even more out of hand. Another reason to do this, of course, was to escape the severe embarrassment that hadn't hit until Lily's terrible realization.

"Look," Lily said, folding her arms and trying to replace the humiliated tone she knew would be in her voice with an annoyed one. "We're not saying that we forgive you, but we don't feel like arguing right now. So if you'll excuse us, we're going to fix Hannah and then we're going to bed." She strategically spoke in a plural sense, so as not to draw attention to her own need for a quick escape. As soon as she said it, the four who had been completely silent perked up a little, eager to leave.

James sighed. "We're sorry, Lily," he said solemnly. She expected him to go on and say something that would send her over the edge, but much to her surprise, he didn't. Lily only nodded briefly and walked away with Jamie and Regan following silently behind her.

At the top of the stairs, they found the dormitory door closed. Lily knocked lightly three times on the wood. "Hannah," she said gently. "It's us."

They heard a weak "Mmm" in response, but nothing more. Assuming that this was their cue to enter, Lily turned the door knob the three girls walked into the room.

The sight that met their eyes was such a contrast to what was normal that it was almost devastating to see. Hannah lay curled up on her side on one of the mattresses on the ground. Her face was turned away from them, but the sobs that shook the girl's body were clear evidence of the tears they couldn't see.

"Oh, Hannah..." Lily said with sympathy as she hurried to her friend's side. The others followed quickly, Regan pausing to shut the door behind them and Jamie stopping to put a locking charm on it.

As predicted, when Lily approached Hannah, there were tears rolling down her cheeks and her eyes were very red. She wiped her face on a pillow when they came near her.

"I'm sorry," she said quickly. "I shouldn't have left you guys like that. I shouldn't have been such a baby about it."

"No, don't think like that!" Lily sat down next to Hannah and pulled her up into a hug. "You don't need to apologize. He had no right to say that to you."

Hannah let out a sob into Lily's shoulder. "Yes, he does. I do the same thing to him, but he doesn't go off crying like this."

Regan stepped in. "Yeah, well you don't go around telling people that they look like the rear end of a skrewt, do you?"

"Regan," Lily hissed, worrying that these words might upset Hannah even more yet.

"What?" Regan replied indifferently, with an edge of fury on her morose voice. "I have a right to be mad at him. Where does he get off destroying her self esteem like this? It isn't fair!"

Hannah let out a heavy sob at this point, and Lily hugged her tighter.

"It never used to be like this," Hannah said quietly, her words muffled by Lily's shoulder. "I don't know if I... if I can take it... anymore."

"Forget about him, Hannah," Regan said, with a firmness in her voice that they could tell was aimed at Sirius, not Hannah. "He's a jerk. He doesn't actually mean any of it - he's just trying to get on your nerves."

"I doubt that," Hannah said. "He hates me. He always has. He thinks I'm ugly. Maybe it's true."

"Hannah, don't say that," pleaded Lily, pulling gently out of the hug.

"Why not?" Her voice was rigid with anger.

"Because it's not true! Why would anybody hate somebody like you? You're beautiful, Hannah, and you're one of the kindest people I've ever known."

"Yeah, well why don't you tell that to Black?"

Lily sighed in defeat. At that moment, she had a dangerously strong urge to run downstairs and strangle Sirius. She was furious with him – anybody who had influence enough to break cheerful Hannah down to tears was definitely toying with their power, and Lily wanted to put a stop to it. The trouble was, she didn't know what it was about Sirius that made Hannah so vulnerable to his insults, or what it was that made Sirius want to continually put her down in the first place. Sure, the war between the Marauders and the Rogues was raging, but Sirius's acidic comments were as inappropriate as they could possibly get.

Lily and Regan continued to comfort Hannah for the next half hour, until she fell asleep with fresh tears still rolling down her cheeks. Jamie sat nearby, but didn't contribute at all to the conversation. As she stared with stunned eyes at the wall, she looked, Lily noticed, like she had just swallowed a pile of flobberworms. When Hannah was breathing evenly, Lily left her to sleep and approached her other upset friend.

"Jamie?" she said quietly, putting a hand on the girl's shoulder.

"Yeah?" Jamie answered softly after a bit of a delay. Her voice sounded thoughtful and strangled.

"Are you okay?"

Jamie sighed, sounding as though she was trying to break through a lump in her throat. "Sure," she said, unconvincingly. "Don't worry about me, it's Hannah we need to be concerned about."

"She's asleep." Lily smiled gently. "So what's on your mind?"

Another sigh escaped Jamie's mouth before she spoke. "Remus knows," she forced out.

"James knows," Lily pointed out.

"Yeah, but I think he _likes_ you. Remus is going to think I'm such a freak! I'm skipping DADA tomorrow."

"No, you're not." Lily was adamant. "I think James has made it pretty clear where he stands in terms of our rivalry." She sighed, thoroughly convinced by her own words. "But Remus has always been pretty nice to you, considering how things are between us and them."

"Maybe you're right about Remus," was Jamie's response, but then she added dismissively, "I don't really want to think about it right now."

"Neither do I," Lily admitted with a tiny smile. The pair sat in silence for a while, obviously doing exactly as they had stated they didn't want to. Lily contemplated James's behaviour tonight, and the more she thought about it, the more her facts were solidified. He was just as engrossed in the war as Sirius, no doubt. She wondered how long it would be before he cut out this 'nice' act and started offending her like his mate was so rudely doing to Hannah.

"I think I'll go to bed," Jamie decided after a while.

"Okay," Lily smiled and hugged her friend. "Sweet dreams."

Leaving yet another friend to their peaceful slumber, Lily traipsed over to her bed and lay down on one of her pillows with no intention of sleeping herself. Regan was standing over by the window, looking absently out into the night. When she glanced at Lily, she tore herself away from the view and lounged out next to her on the comforter with a heavy sigh.

"We sure made a mess of things tonight," she said with a miserable half-grin.

"We sure did."

"Hannah's a mess," Regan said, a crease in her brow.

"So's Jamie."

"I murdered Pettigrew's self-esteem."

"I ruined any chance I had with James."

They both lay there without speaking for some time. When they exhaled at exactly the same time, they both gave a small laugh.

"Come morning," Lily whispered. "Maybe everything will be alright."

"Maybe," Regan shrugged, and then rolled off the bed. "But we'll have to wait and see."

* * *

I know it was kind of all over the place, but it was a difficult chapter to write. I'm not very good with mushy, emotional stuff in my writing. I would like to know how well I did with it though, so some reviews would be helpful... (Wink wink, nudge nudge) :)


	12. Come Morning

**Plot:** The infamous Marauders weren't alone in their love for pranking. In fact, they often had their butts kicked by a bunch of girls. Now, this is it. Seventh year. Four girls, four boys. Two opposing pranking teams. One hell of a battle to be won.

**Disclaimer:** Sad as it may be, I am not J.K. Rowling in disguise, and therefore I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters or themes involved. (I do, however, own Jamie, Hannah and Regan and most elements of this specific plot—so I'd appreciate it if no poaching occurred. Thanks.)

**WARNING (please read): **This is the unedited version, meaning I wrote it a few years ago when my skill level sucked and I had no idea how to properly structure a story. So if you'll please ignore the terrible grammar, dodgy sentence structure, OOC-ness, plot holes, canonical inconsistencies and general immaturity of this whole chapter while I plough my way through all this editing work, that would be greatly appreciated. :) I'm in the process of fixing up all the chapters right now, but you'll have to be patient, because (as you can probably tell just by reading a couple of sentences below) fixing this stuff up takes a lot of time and effort.

* * *

**Chapter 12 – Come Morning**

"I see... I see..."

"Shut up, Peter. You know you're never going to get anything out of it."

Remus Lupin sat on one of Professor Trelawney's squishy bean bag chairs, his head swimming in the sickening humidity of the place and his breathing somewhat incapacitated by the horrible incense that drafted all throughout the classroom. He slumped his head onto the table, disgruntled not only because of the hideous circumstances, but also because of some uneasy thoughts that currently occupied most of the available space in his mind.

"I am so!" Peter protested, narrowing his eyes at the crystal ball in front of him, as if urging an image out of the transparent object.

"Stop it," Remus said in a monotone. "What are you trying to do? _Glare_ at it until it shows you your future?"

Peter's face fell into a defeated pout, and he leaned into the back of the armchair in which he was seated. "Well I don't see you trying," he said angrily at his friend.

"That's because I don't care. Divination is the most futile subject this school offers."

"Then why did you take it this year?"

"Don't you remember, Wormtail? You forced me into it because you didn't want to be alone in this class."

Peter's face turned bright red, but he didn't bother to deny it. Instead, he waited a moment and then changed the subject to something entirely different.

"So," he said, his voice acidicly taunting. "It looks like little Miss _Love_ is in _love_ with you!"

Remus turned his head to cast a dark glare at the boy. "That's the lamest thing I've ever heard," he said. "Even from you."

"It's true, though."

"No, it's not."

Remus turned away from Peter to avoid snapping at his friend, who was clearly asking for it anyways.

In actual fact, Peter's claim couldn't be far off. The Marauders knew that the girls had been under the influence of Veritaserum the previous night, and a potion so strong couldn't have produced even the slightest fib. He remembered Jamie's shy words – spoken so innocently, and yet producing the most devastating outcome that could possibly result._ "I... I might – I mean, I guess I – sort of... like... Remus?" _had been her fateful answer to Regan's question.

Remus shuddered, not out of disgust, but out of confusion and despair. He had always wondered how long it would take for the secret to come out – the horribly non-compliant and totally rebellious attraction between a Marauder and a Rogue. It had only been a matter of time before somebody would start getting suspicious – but Remus hadn't expected for the confirmation to come from _Jamie_. He had been more worried about showing signs himself.

It had started near the beginning of sixth year, which happened to be around the same time Jamie claimed to have started feeling differently for him. He had always admired her for her beauty and intelligence, but things had changed in sixth year. He had started to look at her in a different way – and although he had tried hard to push these thoughts from his minds, fearing the additional conflict between the two groups that this might arouse, he couldn't help it. She seemed so sweet, so innocent, and yet so strong. In a way he looked at her as somebody he should protect, but in another he looked up to her heartiness.

The painful clash tore him apart. His best friends were more important to him than anything else, and he knew that they did not respect the Rogues, or any form of communication with them. But another part of him saw Jamie and wanted to push everything aside for her, including the pressure of James and Sirius.

_Ugh_, he thought to himself with inward doubt. _What am I doing? This isn't right. I'm stupid for thinking this way._

Remus turned to face Peter again, breaking free of his uneasy reverie. He was met with a pathetic, girlish outburst into a singsong: "_Moony's got a girlfriend!_" swaying from side to side with mock happiness. Remus scowled.

"You're pathetic." He scowled.

"Boys!" Professor Synia Trelawney drifted over to them, a reprimanding look on her face in spite of the mystified gaze she held with the crystal ball in her knobbly hand.

Remus sighed. Peter put on a pretentious smile, feigning innocence.

"Do not disrupt the cleansing vibes!" Trelawney sang out in a wavery voice, clutching the ball with both hands now. Remus and Peter said nothing, and she scuttled away, distractedly muttering _"Oh yes, the midnight sun! Exactly as I predicted. Must be..."_

When the ludicrous professor was out of earshot, Peter started singing again, barely quieter than before.

"Would you shut up?" Remus demanded, utterly annoyed.

"You have to admit, it fits."

"No," Remus corrected. "I have to repeat myself: you're pathetic. Maybe Regan was right about you."

He hadn't meant to draw that touchy card, but he was so fed up with Peter that it seemed the only thing that would push him into silence for a sufficient length of time. As it turned out, he succeeded in silencing him, but only for a moment or two.

"She didn't mean it," Peter muttered quietly, his face tinted crimson with embarrassment.

"Pete, she'd taken the truth potion."

The boy said nothing. Remus sighed guiltily.

"You've got it bad for her, Wormtail."

"I have not!" Peter shot back defensively, scowling.

"You have so."

"I hav–"

"Boys!" Trelawney was at their table all of a sudden, swooping in on them like a bat. She brandished her crystal ball and stared hard into it with a wild expression on her face, but then her tone turned mocking and hard. "I see your new table." She tore her gaze away from the object and pointed dramatically over at a table closer to the door.

Remus got up obediently, gathered his things together and slung his bag over his shoulder. He took one step toward his new seat, which satisfied the professor enough to send her away, and then turned back to Peter.

"Stop trying to deny it," he said. "It's obvious – don't look at me like that – but if I were you, I'd try not to be such a pushover. She'll never have any respect for you if you keep letting her get away with sending you bonnets in the mail."

Peter turned away dejectedly to stare out the window, and Remus knew he had gotten through to his friend on some level. But he still had issues to sort through himself – more than just the one he had so recently been fretting about.

* * *

James angrily tore up his parchment and pounded the desk hard with his fist, discarding yet another attempted letter of apology. His mood was at an all time low in terms of optimism. His day had been less than satisfactory; after last night, things had gone from bad to worse. The Rogues avoided them like the plague, quickly disappearing from the Heads' room before the Marauders were even awake and taking all of their things with them. Both Lily and Hannah hadn't been at any classes so far, and Lily hadn't returned to the Heads' Room either – for good reason, too. He knew she was right not to want to talk to him after the way he and the others had treated her and her friends. The emotional damage they had done was somewhat irreparable.

Aside from this, James seemed to be having a streak of bad luck. McGonagall had scolded him in Transfiguration for working on one of his earlier attempts at written reconciliation with Lily (he had planned to give it to her sometime before their Heads' Meeting that night – if he could find her), and had confiscated the little piece of parchment, leaving him to start all over again. He had tripped on the way up the stairs to the dormitory, smashing three bottles of ink and painfully stubbing his big toe. Lastly, he had overheard Regan and Jamie talking about Lily. _"I've never seen Lily so sick,"_ Jamie had said worriedly. Taking this in a metaphorical context, he had assumed they were talking about how fed up with him she was after what his best mate had done to one of hers. He wondered if karma was acting on his and his friends' unforgivable actions.

Suddenly, there was a loud bang, startling James and causing him to jump so badly that he toppled backwards off of his chair, hitting his head on the solid ground. "Ouch!" he said, getting to his feet.

Sirius took one step through the now open door, and turned around as if to inspect the damage. "Cool," he said casually, a lopsided grin on his features. "Didn't think that would work."

"Padfoot, what the hell are you doing here? More importantly, how did you get in?"

"Man, Prongsie, Dumbledore's gotta get his act together on these door-locking charms."

"Yeah," James agreed, a little irritated. "If someone as dumb as you can get past them."

"I'm hurt by that." Sirius put on a mocking pout.

James rubbed his sore head and walked over to the door. One was swinging, uneven on its hinges – the second, on the other hand, had fallen to the ground, and was lying in several cracked pieces.

"Padfoot, you idiot." he grumbled, tugging out his wand. "Reparo." He pointed at the broken bits and they arranged themselves perfectly back into shape, placing themselves back in their proper location. Then he turned his wand to the other door, which swiftly returned to a straight position where it hung.

"What exactly did you do to it?" James asked, still slightly bewildered.

"A very nice exploding charm, if I may say so myself. Would you like me to demonstrate?"

"No, thanks."

Wandering over to the couches by the fire, James wondered dully, "Why are you here?"

"No reason." Sirius shrugged, and threw himself onto one of the sofas, propping his feet up on the arm.

James laughed weakly. "Have you decided to apologize to Hannah about last night?"

Sirius's wince was quite noticeable as he shifted his position on the couch uncomfortably at the question. "Why do we have to talk about that?"

"'Cause you made a right mess of things, Padfoot, that's why."

Sirius said nothing. He grabbed a chocolate frog that had was laying randomly on the coffee table and unwrapped it eagerly, presumably to distract himself from the topic and put off anwering James's query for as long as possible.

"Do you always resort to chocolate in a difficult situation?" James asked, shaking his head in disbelief. Sirius made a what-do-you-mean face while he chewed vigorously on the chocolate frog. James sighed. "You're going to have to talk to her sometime."

"Why?" Sirius protested, although there was the faintest hint of surrender in his voice. "We never talk to the Rogues – civilly, at least."

"That was the case _before_ you went and got Hannah all down on herself."

"She's got issues. _I'm_ not the one making her depressed."

"You're making everything a hundred times worse, mate," James said, getting off the couch. Sirius didn't reply until a few moments later, when James was approaching the staircase to his dormitory.

"Say, Padfoot, do you think Milton likes chocolate?"

James froze, a baffled and slightly amused smile rising on his lips. "Oh dear."

* * *

I hope that wasn't too bad. I wrote it all in about an hour, so it may have been a little rushed. Stay tuned for Chapter 13 when I decide to conquer my fear of that number. What will probably happen is that I'll write Chapter 14 straight afterwards, to avoid staying on that number for any length of time... then again, the number four is also lucky in some countries. All the better for you – three hurried chapters in a row!

If you'd like to encourage me to get through this unlucky chapter, a review might just do the trick ;)

NOTE: This chapter has been edited slightly since it was uploaded. The updates aren't major – I just needed to change a few little things so that it tied nicely into the next chapter, which will be uploaded shortly.

ANOTHER NOTE: This chapter has been changed AGAIN. Thank you to Ohevesca for pointing out the plot hole. Just so that everyone else understands, once again I had to alter the part from James's point of view because it just didn't make sense. I managed to contradict myself completely by saying that Lily and Hannah hadn't been at classes, but also that McGonagall had flashed James's note of apology plainly in front of Lily's eyes. Unless Lily's eyeballs were in the Transfiguration classroom while her body was elsewhere, that didn't work (evidently). So I changed it. It might be of some use to read that part yet again.

Sorry about all this.


	13. Changes

**Plot:** The infamous Marauders weren't alone in their love for pranking. In fact, they often had their butts kicked by a bunch of girls. Now, this is it. Seventh year. Four girls, four boys. Two opposing pranking teams. One hell of a battle to be won.

**Disclaimer:** Sad as it may be, I am not J.K. Rowling in disguise, and therefore I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters or themes involved. (I do, however, own Jamie, Hannah and Regan and most elements of this specific plot—so I'd appreciate it if no poaching occurred. Thanks.)

**WARNING (please read): **This is the unedited version, meaning I wrote it a few years ago when my skill level sucked and I had no idea how to properly structure a story. So if you'll please ignore the terrible grammar, dodgy sentence structure, OOC-ness, plot holes, canonical inconsistencies and general immaturity of this whole chapter while I plough my way through all this editing work, that would be greatly appreciated. :) I'm in the process of fixing up all the chapters right now, but you'll have to be patient, because (as you can probably tell just by reading a couple of sentences below) fixing this stuff up takes a lot of time and effort.

* * *

**Chapter 13 – Changes**

To say that the aftermath of the night's events had a devastating effect on the Rogues would be a huge understatement. By the time the sun peered over the hills to the east of the castle, the girls' minimal sleep had allowed things to digest, and the end result was borderline disastrous.

Lily, who hadn't slept more than a few hours, woke to severe stomach sickness. After throwing up several times in the bathroom, she blamed her queasiness on the repugnance that lingered on from the night before. She continued to feel ill at ease when, involuntarily, her thoughts drifted to the Marauders, and the idea of facing James for a whole hour of discussing Heads' duties sent her stomach into a raging turmoil. She almost gagged when she remembered her sickening and unintentional confession, although she was further disgusted that James had expected consequences less severe than this after the senseless trick he and his nasty friends had pulled. She hated to think that after convincing herself he had changed, even considering that she might have _feelings_ for him, one spiteful prank had proven her an idiot. Who was she kidding? James Potter simply wasn't capable of being mature.

Jamie bluntly refused to roll out of bed in the morning. She groaned and buried her face in a pillow, claiming that she would blow off all of her classes if only she could go back to her dreams. Lily empathized for the girl, understanding almost exactly what her friend must be going through. After all, she too had let slip her feelings and was also going to have to face the embarrassing consequences.

The moment that Regan woke up – although she was not quite brought to her senses at this point – she sat bolt upright and started sputtering incoherently, concluding her flustered rambling with:"It was a dream, right?"

From where Lily lay on the bathroom floor, leaning her head against the bathtub and clutching her stomach, she had regretfully muttered a negative response before closing her eyes again.

The most abnormal reaction, though, was Hannah's. Although she had taken the most brutal emotional blow the previous night, it seemed to have little effect on her in the morning. Although was uncharacteristically quiet, she didn't appear distraught at all, unlike the others. She went about her business as if nothing had happened, and aside from her lacking in talkativeness, the excess amount of time she spent in front of the mirror seemed to be the only difference.

Lily was not convinced by Hannah's apparent nonchalance, even though it was difficult to spot any holes in her carefully constructed masquerade. After how she had taken Sirius's words last night, Lily knew she must be aching inside. But she wasn't showing it at all.

Although they had been well awake for over an hour, it was scarcely six o'clock by the time Lily bothered to check the clock on the bathroom counter, meaning that they had more than three hours remaining before lessons commenced. When Lily's stomach was finally emptied – although unfortunately still quite unsettled – she slumped back down onto her bed with a loud sigh.

"Lils, you look like hell," Regan said, concerned.

"I wonder why," Lily replied with a weak attempt at sarcasm. She knew Regan had good reasoning behind her claim – Lily had seen her reflection on her way out of the bathroom, and she looked dreadful. Her face was as white as a sheet, with a horrible hue of greyish green. A thin sheen of sweat coated her ghostly cheeks, while her hair hung in a tatted bundle over her shoulders and dark circles of purple hung beneath her droopy eyes.

"If you're taking the day off, Lily, I'm quite happy to stay with you," Jamie offered hopefully.

Lily looked up, suddenly all too aware of the day ahead. "I can't skip, there's so much going on," she said glumly. "There's that practical assessment for Charms – I can't miss that – and I have to hand in those essays to Slughorn–"

The answering _don't-be-such-a-Lily_ glares that met her words were enough to make her stop mid-sentence. She sighed and planted her face in the sheets, exasperated.

"Lil, you need the rest," Jamie said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"I guess it couldn't hurt," Lily sighed in defeat.

There was silence for a few moments, before it was broken, surprisingly, by Hannah.

"I'm not going to classes either," she shrugged. They all stared blankly at her, and she rolled her eyes at them before explaining. "I've got better things to do than endure the Marauders all day."

Nobody questioned her. It was almost as though she were somehow more fragile after what had happened with Sirius – like anything would hit her hard now that her barrier of confidence had been broken down.

"Don't look at me like that, guys," she said, sounding suspicious a little offended.

"Like what?" Regan asked, abruptly snapping her expression back to a somewhat casual one.

"Like I'm some kind of breakable ornament." Hannah furrowed her eyebrows apprehensively.

There was no response to this beyond more vacant expressions, and so Hannah groaned in mild annoyance, standing up. "I'm going back to the Gryffindor dorms," she said resolutely, and strolled off towards the door. She turned back to them when she was a few feet away from the exit. "Are any of you gaping freaks coming?"

"Hannah, we should talk..." Lily trailed off, not sure what to say next.

"What's to talk about?" the girl shrugged dismissively and closed the door behind her as she left.

Lily sighed dejectedly, rolling over as she felt another surge of nausea. It looked as though Hannah had put up another protective shield after the destruction of the first. Only this time, it wasn't natural. She wanted desperately to get through to her friend so that they could sort things out, but judging by the way things were going so far, it wasn't going to be an easy task.

"Get up, Jamie," Regan coaxed as she attempted to drag her stubborn friend off of the four poster bed. "We're going to be late for breakfast if we don't get down to the kitchens soon."

"I'm not going to breakfast," Jamie groaned, folding her arms around the bedpost as if protectively.

"Yes, you are!" Regan tugged at the girl's arms in frustration, trying without much success to pry her arms away from the bed.

"I'm staying here." Jamie's voice was firmly decisive.

"Unless you're drowning in your own sweat like Lily here – sorry Lily – then you're coming with me!"

"Actually, I'm not feeling so well either..."

"Oh, please!"

There came a groan from the bed to their left. The pair turned in time to see Lily raise a hand to her forehead, shifting in discomfort where she lay on her mattress. The bed had been stripped of covers, and the red-headed girl lay sprawled across it, dressed lightly in a singlet and shorts.

"Sorry, Lily," Regan apologized, giving Jamie a stern glare.

Reluctantly, Jamie removed her arms from around the bedpost and slipped off her bed. "Fine," she said in grudging resignation. "I'll go. But in Defense Against the Dark Arts, you're sitting next to me no matter what Professor Marsh says."

Only a few days after the allocation of their original seats in Professor Marsh's classroom, the toad-like teacher had switched the location of several people, including Jamie, who had been assigned to the spot next to Remus. Though originally, the pair had not been as strongly opposed to their placement as a few very furious others – take Hannah and Sirius for example – it now seemed the most horrid pairing the teacher could possibly have come up with.

"Deal," said Regan with a smile, looking very pleased by this arrangement herself. Her spot next to Peter was hardly more bearable.

After dressing in their school clothes, Regan and Jamie packed their bags with their books and writing supplies. They were first heading down to the kitchens to pick up some things for Lily, who was resting in the dormitory for the day. After that, they would be preparing themselves to face the awkwardness brought on by the night's activities.

"I'm really starting to worry about Hannah," Jamie sighed as they gathered their things together.

"Yeah," said Regan, biting her lip. "I wonder where she is."

When the three of them had returned to Gryffindor Tower, their blonde friend had already left. She hadn't made an appearance since, and so the girls were beginning to get a little concerned, mostly because of her curious words earlier about having better things to do.

"She's probably in the Owlery sending howlers to Black," Regan shrugged after a moment of total silence.

Slinging their bags over their shoulders, the two girls started towards the door.

"Lils?" Jamie asked softly as they were about to depart.

"Hmm," was the answering groan.

"We'll be back in a few minutes. Hope you're feeling better."

"Fat chance," Lily scoffed, her words barely audible as she spoke into a pillow.

"See you," Regan said, and with that, she and Jamie left for the kitchens.

* * *

_Aa-Br, Bu-Ci..._

Hannah keenly scanned the shelves, all crammed with books that were covered in a layer of dust that appeared to be about an inch thick. The titles were tricky to decipher under the grime, and so she went by the alphabetical indicators on the side of each shelf. These, too, were dusty, but not masked to the extent that the books were.

As usual, scouring the restricted section brought to Hannah a great thrill and an enthusiastic feeling of excitement, instead of the guilt and the worry of being caught it would stir up in most students. Of course, judging by the unused state of the books, not many students had been up to this rule-breaking task – or perhaps they had walked the aisles but were caught by Filch before they could lay a hand on any of the volumes.

It had been relatively easy to get into the library, despite the popular belief among students that Madam Pince had it guarded at all hours by a vicious pack of oversized apes. She had only to use a tiny magical instrument – a silver knife given to her by her somewhat nutty grandmother – to break through the lock on the door, and from there, things couldn't have been simpler. There was no one in the library as of yet, and she planned to be out of there before students started arriving. So really, there was no risk of getting caught.

Finally, Hannah came to a wooden board with a label that read _'Ev-Fr'_ and slipped quickly in between the shelves. She ran a finger up and down as she searched for a particular title. Finally, toward the other side of the shelf, she found it – a thick, emerald green binding in between several others of blander colours.

Hannah could hardly keep her excitement contained as she reached an eager hand toward the book's spine. The writing was golden – it was illuminated slightly by the light that poured in from the windows, filtered by the many rows of bookshelves and reduced to a faint glow.

She lifted the book carefully from its place up high. After she slid it off the shelf, she had to catch it in both hands – it was very heavy. Smiling with satisfaction, she looked down at the cover of the book. '_Warbus Flechbert's All-Telling Guide to Animagi and their Development' _was written in a large font across the front, and a tiny illustration of a human figure standing next to that of an animal filled the remaining space.

In Hannah's opinion, there wasn't much point of placing such a book in the section that was off limits to students; the particular subject was something they learned about in their ordinary classes at school. But the information that Hannah knew was contained inside this book was of the sort that the teachers might think could cause mayhem if swallowed by the wrong students. She almost laughed at this thought – the book was probably put in the restricted section to keep it out of the hands of students like herself and her mischief-making friends.

She wanted terribly to lift the front cover of the book and begin reading straight away, but she knew that it had to wait until she returned to the dormitory. She had to get out of here as soon as possible, or else the book would be confiscated and she would be thrown in detention for her actions.

Striding briskly back to the door, Hannah peered around to be sure that there was nobody to see her. For safety measures, she slid the book into the bag that hung over her shoulder before she exited the library and swung the door shut behind her. _Mission accomplished, _she thought to herself in contentment as she rounded the corner and continued swiftly on her way back to Gryffindor Tower.

* * *

"Miss Love! Miss Tain! What in the name of Merlin do you think you are doing?"

Professor Marsh's sharp voice cut into them like a thousand knives as the teacher marched suddenly into the room, and the two girls' heads snapped up immediately. They glanced worriedly at each other, and then Regan turned to face the Professor. "Um, sitting down?" she said with a wide, hopeful smile.

"I should hope you're not losing your memory at your ripe age, Miss Tain," Marsh said in a response that disappointed the girls. Despite what sounded like humour in her words, her tone was as dry as the drone of a sullen raven. "If I must remind you, your place is over _there_, next to Mister Pettigrew." She pointed to the spot that Remus currently occupied, and widened her eyes as she noticed this second misdemeanour.

Regan rolled her eyes – tactfully turning towards Jamie as she did so – and grabbed her bag from where it sat next to her feet. Remus walked past her as they exchanged spots, and they both kept their eyes averted.

Jamie froze. She edged her chair as far from the other as possible and turned her head, letting her flowing, golden ponytail fall down across the side of her face. She heard the chair scrape against the ground as Remus seated himself, and she tried to ease her breathing.

She wanted to scream out loud at Professor Marsh. How continue to be adamant about the seating plan when the discomfort between the Marauders and the Rogues was so painfully obvious? Jamie knew she wouldn't survive the lesson like this. She would eventually die from lack of oxygen if she didn't start breathing again, but she couldn't help it. She was too anxious to breathe normally, and the only breaths she was currently capable of taking were too quick and too short to be considered natural, so she resigned herself to not drawing in any air at all. This, as she had predicted, was not a clever plan. A few moments later, she let all the air out in one go and gasped for breath. She could feel Remus's bemused eyes on her as her cheeks warmed with embarrassment.

Jamie managed to work quite successfully through the lesson with her head turned away from him, although she was excruciatingly aware of his gaze lingering on her occasionally. They didn't exchange a singly word, and for that, Jamie was thankful.

But her luck didn't last beyond the half-hour milestone. Much to her bewilderment, Remus addressed her at this point.

"Uh, Jamie?"

She stiffened at his nervous words. The polite thing, she knew, would be to turn around and accept whatever he had to say. It might just be a question about the work they were doing – maybe he only wanted to know about the exact location of the previously undercover Auror station in Polynesia.

She silently scolded herself for being so stupid. Of course he knew that already – this was _Remus Lupin_, for crying out loud. Instead of turning to look at him, she continued to face in the opposite direction.

"Jamie?" he repeated, his words a little stronger this time. "We need to talk."

Jamie still didn't respond. She knew she was being ridiculous and vulgar, but she didn't know what else to do. She was far too shy to speak with him face to face, so this seemed the only option that was even vaguely reasonable.

"Are you just going to ignore me?" There was a trace of hurt in his voice this time. Jamie's eyebrows creased, but she said nothing. "Come on, Jamie, don't be like this."

After a few more failed attempts, Remus resigned and went back to quietly finishing his work. Jamie sighed, rather annoyed at her foolishness.

She was going to have to speak to him sometime. The awkwardness wasn't going to go away unless she faced up to it. But she wasn't sure what to say to him. It seemed he already knew everything there was to know – she had feelings for him, the end. What more was there to say?

Again, she was irritated by her own stupidity. There was still _everything_ to say – Remus still hadn't expressed his reaction to her confession.

And this was the reason for her worries. She didn't know if she _wanted_ to hear what he had to tell her. It would be uncomfortable, sitting there and trying to absorb whether or not he returned these feelings. But mostly, it was not a question of unease. It was more about his answer itself – what if he didn't like her back?

She would have to find out eventually – but she wasn't quite ready for it. Not yet, anyway.

* * *

The way I put it together was a bit sloppy, and I know my writing wasn't particularly wonderful in this chapter, but you can't expect anything better from Chapter Thirteen. And it was a chapter nonetheless, so don't complain. The next chapter should be up fairly soon, so keep an eye out for it. But while you're waiting, why not drop a review? :)


	14. Sick At Heart

**Plot:** The infamous Marauders weren't alone in their love for pranking. In fact, they often had their butts kicked by a bunch of girls. Now, this is it. Seventh year. Four girls, four boys. Two opposing pranking teams. One hell of a battle to be won.

**Disclaimer:** Sad as it may be, I am not J.K. Rowling in disguise, and therefore I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters or themes involved. (I do, however, own Jamie, Hannah and Regan and most elements of this specific plot—so I'd appreciate it if no poaching occurred. Thanks.)

**WARNING (please read): **This is the unedited version, meaning I wrote it a few years ago when my skill level sucked and I had no idea how to properly structure a story. So if you'll please ignore the terrible grammar, dodgy sentence structure, OOC-ness, plot holes, canonical inconsistencies and general immaturity of this whole chapter while I plough my way through all this editing work, that would be greatly appreciated. :) I'm in the process of fixing up all the chapters right now, but you'll have to be patient, because (as you can probably tell just by reading a couple of sentences below) fixing this stuff up takes a lot of time and effort.

* * *

**Chapter 14 – Sick At Heart**

Regan had never thought it possible to feel sorry for something she had done to the Marauders.

But this was different. Peter wasn't his usual bratty self – he was quiet as can be. She could tell by the pained expression on his pudgy face that his self-esteem was brutally wounded, destroyed even. Sitting next to him, the starkness of his suffering was magnified to such a factor that Regan could hardly stand it. Normally this sort of thing didn't concern her, but to think that she was responsible for this... it made her feel like an enormous hypocrite. Truth be told, what she had done to Peter was hardly classed any differently to what Sirius had done to Hannah.

Regan tried to spend as much time as possible staring away from Peter and instead trying to catch Jamie's eye, but her panicky friend was so much on edge that she had turned completely in the other direction, with her back facing the boy she was nervously trying to avoid.

However, when she inadvertently turned in Peter's direction to dip her quill, she realized that there was no need to face the other way. Peter's whole body was turned so far away from her and his focus was so remote that she might have been a stationary object, not worthy of any acknowledgment at all. She realized with a pang of guilt that this was probably true.

After spending another hour in the hell of indecision, the students were finally unleashed on the corridors, and Regan got up as soon as the professor dismissed them. Peter was quick; he was out the door with commendable speed, considering his bulky physique. But Regan had made her choice, and she was even faster in her attempt to catch up. She shot up after him, stopping in front of him and blocking his path. His face was full of shock.

"What?" he said, evidently trying to sound impatiently indifferent – and failing.

"Peter," Regan said in as gentle a tone she could muster while talking to this particular subject. He looked perplexed, but it was nothing compared to the look he gave her after she said, "I wanted to apologize."

His eyes lit up and he blushed in spite of himself. His lips almost formed a smile, but as they parted in surprise, they formed a stupid sort of 'o' shape. Regan tried not to laugh, and was surprised by her successful self-restraint.

Careful with her wording, Regan drew in a deep breath and proceeded. "I didn't mean... well, what I'm trying to say is..." she fumbled idiotically over her words as she tried to decide on the most appropriate way to put it. _To hell with it_, she thought. "Whatever. I can't say that I didn't mean what I said, because that'd be a sorry lie if I ever heard one. But I think I misjudged you, Pettigrew. I took you for some pitiable little pushover who tagged along with his friends for the glory ride." Peter's face fell. "Wait!" Regan insisted. "I was wrong. I didn't think you could take an insult to heart like that – I thought you'd just blow it off like your dumb pricks of friends always do. But you didn't, and... I guess that shows you've got a personality of your own. I'm sorry."

She thought she had expressed herself fairly accurately without going overboard, but Peter's change of expression at her last words told her otherwise. She gulped.

"D-do you mean it?" he stuttered, a hopeful smile on his pudgy face.

"Uh... I guess," said Regan hesitantly.

Peter was ecstatic. "Thank you!" he practically squealed. Regan took a step back. Then he burst into a rather long and complicated jumble of words. "I though – I mean, I didn't think you really meant it! I was right! That'll teach Remus... Oh, and sorry for throwing a rock at you. I didn't mean to – I cast the wrong spell, you see."

Regan couldn't help but crack a smile. "I know." she said. "You wouldn't have the guts to knock me out on purpose."

Peter frowned momentarily, but his jovial mood didn't seem too diminished.

"Err, I should go," Regan said slowly, taking a few steps away. Peter looked confused. "Potions." she informed in, and he looked enlightened.

"See you!" he called when she was several yards away. She didn't look back, but waved briefly over her shoulder before disappearing around the bend.

* * *

Lily's fever hadn't gone down since morning. In fact – she knew from a simple spell she had been taught by Flitwick that allowed one to use their wand as a thermometer – that her temperature had been on the rise. She was well aware of the fact that Madam Pomfrey could work wonders and probably fix her in an instant, but she wasn't going to leave the dormitory looking like this. Or rather, she wasn't prepared to face James if she happened to run into him in the corridors.

Lily knew it was far from reasonable to hold such a grudge, but for some reason, it seemed that this time, James had proven himself worthy of total ignorance. He and his stupid friends had gone beyond teasing – this time they were actually _hurting_ the Rogues – or at least, one of them. Lily was kicking herself for believing that he had matured over the summer. If anything, he and the rest of the Marauders had become even more childish.

But beneath the anger welling up in her stomach and her head – she thought this probably had something to do with the fever – Lily knew there was denial. Now that James knew what she thought of him, what was he going to say? She couldn't face him. Not now, when she had thrown her feelings so openly into the raging battlefield.

The day dragged on, and what time Lily didn't pass sleeping she spent brooding over her impossible situation. With regret, she thought about the Heads' meeting taking place that evening in she and James's shared Common Room. It certainly wasn't going to be pleasant, but it was mandatory. If anything mattered, Lily's marks did – and blowing off her duties wasn't a great place to start when it came to impressing the teachers.

The longer she thought about it, the sicker she became. And after spending a long hour in the bathroom, Lily wondered if it might be best to skip the meeting for her health's sake, at least. But, realizing that she was only making feeble excuses, she groaned to herself and returned to indecision. She had another two hours to think about it, and if her progress so far was anything to go by, it wouldn't be enough.

* * *

Remus was growing more restless as the day went on. His encounter with Jamie had been frustratingly unsuccessful, and it didn't help that he was already in a bad moon. With the full moon only a couple of days away, he was in a bad state overall. His temper took the worst blow.

After Defense Against the Dark Arts, he had decided it would be best not to approach Jamie again. She wasn't willing to talk to him, and that was probably for the best – he didn't want to risk snapping at her when she had done nothing to deserve it.

He did his best to avoid her at all costs. Remus realized after a while that he was likely making it a little _too_ blunt; every so often, he caught the shy girl glancing in his direction and frowning when he made no effort to speak to her. The unnaturally irritable part of him wanted to scream out at her – she had, after all, made it very clear that she didn't want to talk.

But now she seemed to have had some change of heart. She continued to look at him almost hopefully, and his heart sunk every time she did. He wished the full moon could have fallen at another time, so that he could properly express himself without this abnormal anger getting the best of him. More than anything he wished that he could explain to her why he couldn't bear to be near her right now. But nobody at school besides the Marauders knew of Remus's secret, and for good reason too.

Running into Jamie, it seemed, was inevitable. A terrible feeling of disappointment and dread spread through him as she approached. There was no way this was going to end well.

"Hey," Jamie said quietly, her eyes downcast. Remus kept his mouth shut, but it didn't seem to help the way he thought it would; Jamie's face fell at his lack of response. "I thought we should talk," she said innocently, breaking Remus's heart.

"Jamie," he started, still uncertain of what his next words would be. "I can't... this isn't the best time."

"Oh."

He wanted to murder himself. How could he be doing this to Jamie? Clearly he'd been leading her on by trying to engage her in conversation earlier that day, and now he was dealing with the aftermath – guilt, on her part, for ignoring him. But the tables were turned, and now Remus was the one who didn't want to talk.

"We can talk... later. In a few days, maybe," he tried to justify himself, but without success.

"A few days?" Jamie sounded crestfallen.

"I have to sort out some things first," Remus said, fighting the lump in his throat.

Jamie nodded meekly, and turned around to head in the other direction. Remus was about to breathe a sigh of relief when, unexpectedly, she turned around. Her beautiful face was livid, and her sweet voice full of fury.

"You know what? I know that you heard what I said last night. And you made you think you would face up to it like a man, but obviously I was wrong. Obviously you're just going to be a coward and put it off."

Remus was astonished. "Jamie, I know you're mad. And I want to talk, I do! But I can't right now."

She planted her fists on her hips with such force that Remus would be surprised if she didn't bruise herself. "And _why_ exactly can't we talk now?"

Remus was infuriated now, not at Jamie personally, but at his inability to explain the circumstances. Before he knew it, he was shouting at her. "Don't you start judging me! You don't understand the kind of situation I'm in!"

Jamie's face reddened as she fired her acidic words back at him. "_I_ don't understand _your_ situation? Do you know how embarrassing this is for me?"

Remus practically exploded, though he knew she couldn't have any idea of the irony of her words. "Embarrassing?" he thundered. "This is _much_ harder for me than it is for you, trust me on that."

"I'm not so sure I should."

"Why are we even having this conversation?"

"Because I thought it would help."

"Well, obviously it hasn't."

"Pardon me for trying."

"Maybe you should stay out of my way next time." He meant it more as a friendly warning than anything, but the words came out all wrong thanks to the building rage he could not control.

"Maybe I should." Jamie had tears in her blue eyes now, and Remus couldn't bear the sight of it. He wanted to be the one comforting her, not the one who made her need to be comforted in the first place. He could stand what he was doing to her.

"I have to go," he said dully, and sprinted off down the hallway. He tried to ignore the astounded faces of the people in the hallway. Of course it was a sight that would turn every head – since when did quiet little Jamie Love and the reserved Remus Lupin break into a shouting match?

But the reactions of the audience weren't important. Remus's reputation meant nothing to him right now. Most of all, he was worried about salvaging what little respect Jamie might have left for him – but he was going to have to wait for his transformation to pass before he could do it.

* * *

Lily rolled onto her side. _Should I go?_ She kept on asking herself. She put one foot out of bed, still stretched out on the mattress. The fresh air felt nice. But the moment she thought of what awaited her in the Heads' Room, she rolled back onto her pillows, determined to stay there. When temptation got the better of her she stuck a foot out again, and the process repeated itself.

By about the fifth time, Lily was getting impatient with herself. She was going to have to make a decision sooner or later.

Finally, deciding that her position as Head Girl was more important than anything else, she placed her feet resolutely on the floor. She was lightheaded when she stood up, but the dizziness passed as she trudged over to her trunk and started to sort through her clothes.

In spite of her seemingly justified choice, Lily couldn't help but wonder to herself as she got dressed why she was going to this meeting. There wasn't a thing in the world she dreaded more. But all in all, she would have to face him sometime. And the dread was only going to further overwhelm her if she put it off any longer.

Lily felt a little refreshed as she headed out portrait hole – her headache was dulling down a little, and her stomach was much more settled than it had been an hour ago. She didn't know whether this had to do with sickness or her satisfaction at finally having made up her mind. The latter was the most likely explanation of the two.

She started scolding herself under her breath when she had almost arrived at the familiar double door with the name tags on it – she noticed that one hung a little crooked on its hinges – and if it hadn't been against her better judgment, she would have turned around and gone back to bed. _What am I doing here?_ She asked as her pace carried her towards the entrance to her apparent doom. _I can't go in there... I can't go in there..._

But at that instant, the door swung open, and Lily jumped so badly that she fell off of her feet and landed with a _thud_ on the stone floor (her body was in no state for surprises today, not quite having recovered from the illness).

"Lily?" said a voice, half amused, have shocked. Fortunately, it didn't belong to James.

Lily pulled herself up and looked around; her eyes found Sirius Black standing in front of the door, which was ajar. "Err, Heads' meeting," she explained simply.

"Oh yeah, I remember now," Sirius said, and then ducked back in through the door. "Prongsie! Your girlfriend's here!" he called out.

"Shut up, Padfoot," Lily heard James's low reply, and she was suddenly filled with anxiety.

"What?" Sirius said, feigning innocence, as he exited the room once again.

Only now did the powerful sense of revulsion that Lily had forgotten about come back to life. She glared icily at Sirius, as if to remind him that he was not forgiven for his cruel actions, but he only chuckled at her delayed reaction as he walked away. She noticed that he carried a small, square-shaped box in his hand.

"Lily?" James's voice called to her now, and she snapped back to attention. Gulping, she stepped through the door.

"Yeah, I'm here."

James's answering smile was radiant, but not without that slight hint of uneasiness that could only be expected. Lily smiled very faintly in response, though only on the outside – inside, she was far from comfortable, even as she sat down in an armchair (as far away from him as their minimal furniture would allow) in front of the warm fire.

"I'm glad you came," James said, as if he had known she was considering staying away.

Lily nodded, but said nothing. After a few moments, James spoke.

"Well, I guess we should get started then."

"Okay."

"Do you want to talk about some of the events we need to plan?" he suggested.

"Sure." Lily wasn't particularly worried about what they were talking about. It was the talking itself she wasn't keen on. But, if they could stay away from the fatal topic that threatened to arise at any moment, she would be ultimately thankful.

James appeared a little stumped by her lack of extensive replies, but carried on anyway.

"Alright then. Have you got any suggestions as to what we're going to do for Halloween?"

"Not really," Lily admitted. _What the heck, _she thought. _I might as well elaborate. _He was only going to get more suspicious if she continued to give him such short replies. She added on, "I haven't had much time to think about it."

"No, me neither," James said with a tiny grin. "It's a wonder they expect us to handle all this on top of the homework load they're throwing at us."

Lily gave a quiet laugh. "Yeah," she said. "It is."

They discussed, for a little while, some possibilities for an appropriate end-of-October event. They were both in agreement (a rare instance indeed) that the students of Hogwarts were always eager to have a fancy dress occasion early on in the year. They didn't get very far into talking about options for a costume party when without warning, Lily started burning up again. She couldn't tell what had brought it on, but before long she felt faint, and was having a hard time concentrating on the conversation.

"Hey Lily, are you okay?"

Lily was almost dozing off when James's words brought her back to reality. He was looking at her, and by his face she could tell that he was extremely concerned.

"I'm fine," she lied. James didn't look convinced, so she forced a smile. That seemed to hold him off for a while.

They talked some more about their plans for Halloween, but Lily was contributing less and less to the exchange of ideas as her head started to feel heavier. At some point in the conversation – things were getting hazy now – James interpreted her silence as a lack of interest, and so he switched to a different topic, speaking instead of the individual events they were supposed to organize. Lily became fully awake when a particular subject arose.

"I was thinking of something like a one on one Quidditch tournament," James mused. "Actually, it was Sirius's idea."

"Sirius?" Suddenly, Lily remembered the prime factor that had led up to her not wanting to come to the meeting.

"Is there something wrong?" James asked hesitantly. His voice was cautious, as if he feared this might spark an argument.

"Has he apologized to Hannah yet?" Lily asked crossly, folding her arms, but pulling them apart as their fiery temperature practically scalded her stomach.

"I think he's on his way right now," James replied.

"Well that's good. He'd better not stuff this up."

"He won't, Lily. You should stop being so judgmental about him."

"You think I'm being hard on him?" she asked incredulously. "After what he did to one of my best friends?"

"That's not exactly what I said," James protested somewhat calmly.

"Ugh! You don't understand what kind of impact he has on Hannah, do you?" Lily was shouting now, and it made her head pound excruciatingly. She slapped a palm to her forehead and leaned over in pain.

James stopped in the middle of a reply that Lily had not heard. "Are you sure you're alright, Lily?"

"No," she groaned, twisting her head so that her cheek was pressed against the back of the chair. Even its cushions, which had been absorbing the heat from the fireplace, were cold compared to her face.

"Holy crap! Lily, what's wrong?" she was vaguely aware of James hurrying to her side, although her other senses were drowned out by the fever that was swiftly engulfing her.

"I... don't... know..." she managed to say, though her throat was very dry. She was surprised at how terrible she was feeling – she had thought she was getting better when she had arrived for the meeting. And since when did any kind of sickness come on this quickly?

James was frantic. "You look terribly, Lily! I gotta get you to the hospital wing." She felt his comparatively cold hands close around her forearm, and instinctively wrenched herself free from his grip.

"Get off!" she mumbled, her eyes fighting to stay open. But his grip was strong, and soon he had a hold of her and they were standing – or rather, he was standing, and all of her weight was being supported by him. The next moment, everything went black, for Lily had collapsed into unconsciousness.

* * *

Hannah sighed as she climbed back through the portrait hole, thoroughly defeated. She'd had a very dull, unproductive day. Only her morning had held any excitement, when she had been searching the library for a book she wanted terribly to read. But she'd spent most of the afternoon pondering over the cover page, debating whether or not to open it without telling her friends first. She had decided against it in the end – she wasn't sure if her friends would approve of the plan she had devised that this book was going to help put into action.

Climbing the stairs to the girls' dormitory, Hannah had second thoughts about the idea herself – it would definitely be a lot of fun, but there were dangers involved, and Hannah didn't like the thought of putting her friends in peril. It was for a good cause, though...

Hannah froze solid when she stepped into the dormitory. She could see her bed from there, and she could see something sitting on her pillow; something that didn't belong there.

Confused, she walked into the room and plunked herself down on the bed, reaching over to pick up the item. It was a small box, yellow in colour, with a white ribbon stuck on the top. There was also a minuscule tag.

_To Hannah,_ it read.

_I'm sorry for what I said. I hope these will make you understand and help you to forgive me._

_Sirius_

_Sirius Black?_ Hannah almost had the wind knocked out of her when she read the messy scrawl of a signature. That was definitely the last person Hannah expected to receive a gift from. Was this some kind of joke? Or a lame attempt at an apology? She was so perplexed that she didn't know how to react. She didn't even know if she should open it.

After a minute of deliberation, Hannah quickly pulled off the top of the box, as if it would burn her fingers if she held it for any length of time. Inside there were six chocolate frogs.

It took a short moment for Hannah to think of it, but then it hit her. It was simple, and there was no other plausible explanation.

Of course it was a joke.

What had he just finished telling her last night? He had made his view of her appearance painfully clear. And what would somebody as ill-humoured as Sirius Black give somebody – in attempt to be funny – if he wanted them to know that they needed to lose a few pounds?

The answer was right in front of her. She'd seen it done to numerous other girls at school. _I hope these will make you understand?_ What kind of sick wit was that?

Hannah threw the chocolate frogs down on her bed and stormed out of the room. At the bottom of the stairs, she was surprised to see Sirius lounging on one of the armchairs by the fire.

"Sirius Black!" she yelled at him, and he jumped up, startled.

"Me?" he asked, bemused.

"Yes, you! Do you see another Sirius Black around here anywhere?"

"Well there's one over there..." he pointed to his reflection in the window.

Hannah was outraged. "You think you're funny, don't you?"

"Well, I do think I have a natural charm."

"Natural charm?" Hannah cried out, exasperated. "You call that little prank a '_natural charm_'?"

"What prank?" Sirius looked genuinely confused. Hannah still wasn't swayed.

"You may like to play stupid, Black, but I'm not dumb! I know what you meant by it, and it's just plain _mean_."

Only now did Sirius seemed to realize their subject of conversation. His eyes lit up with enlightenment at first, only to drain of all colour when he realized the source of Hannah's fury.

"Oh, that! I swear it was only-"

"I don't give a damn! Stay away from me, or else!"

"Done deal," he said, backing away with his hands held up.

"Good!" Hannah huffed, and stomped back up the stairs.

She slammed the door behind her purely out of frustration, but smiled when she realized the acoustics would have a nice effect downstairs – Sirius would at least get an understanding of how mad she was. But her smile didn't last long. In fact, the moment she reached her bed, Hannah's face crumpled and she burst into tears.

She didn't know how long she was crying for, but after a while, she stopped to sniff and noticed that the sound of the sobbing didn't stop. There was somebody else, she could tell.

Hannah blinked, wiped her eyes on the collar of her robe, and looked around for the source of the crying. She spotted it straight away, laying in a heap on the bed across from hers – Jamie.

"Jamie?" she asked, her voice weak.

Her friend looked up after a short hesitation. "Hannah, is that you?" her eyes were so red that she didn't seem to be able to see her from the other side of the room.

"Yeah." Hannah smiled slightly, getting up and crossing the room quickly before letting herself fall down next to her friend.

Jamie sniffed. "Marauder troubles?" she asked.

"Is it that obvious?" Hannah asked as stray a tear slid down her cheek.

Jamie laughed. "No, but it's just that..." she seemed to change her mind half way through. "Me, too," she said.

"Oh, Jamie!" Hannah threw her arms around her distraught friend, but this only brought on a fresh round of tears – from both girls. They sat there for some time, crying onto each others' shoulders. Finally, they pulled apart.

"Why are we letting these idiotic boys get the better of us?" Hannah asked with a tiny, sad laugh.

"I don't know," Jamie sighed. "I thought Remus..." she broke off, sniffing and wiping a tear from her face.

"They don't matter," said Hannah resolutely, and hugged her friend again. "We've got each other."

* * *

Aww... how cheesy...  
(NOTE: Fear not, I am going to change the ending when I get around to editing this chapter. Don't worry - I cringe every time I read it, too.)

I couldn't think of any other way to end it, so that will have to do. I hope this chapter made enough sense. Feel free to leave a review, you know, if you feel like it. If you have time, also visit the website for this story (the link is on my profile). It's still under construction, but there's plenty to keep you entertained while I work on the next chapter. :)


	15. Face the Facts

**Plot:** The infamous Marauders weren't alone in their love for pranking. In fact, they often had their butts kicked by a bunch of girls. Now, this is it. Seventh year. Four girls, four boys. Two opposing pranking teams. One hell of a battle to be won.

**Disclaimer:** Sad as it may be, I am not J.K. Rowling in disguise, and therefore I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters or themes involved. (I do, however, own Jamie, Hannah and Regan and most elements of this specific plot—so I'd appreciate it if no poaching occurred. Thanks.)

**WARNING (please read): **This is the unedited version, meaning I wrote it a few years ago when my skill level sucked and I had no idea how to properly structure a story. So if you'll please ignore the terrible grammar, dodgy sentence structure, OOC-ness, plot holes, canonical inconsistencies and general immaturity of this whole chapter while I plough my way through all this editing work, that would be greatly appreciated. :) I'm in the process of fixing up all the chapters right now, but you'll have to be patient, because (as you can probably tell just by reading a couple of sentences below) fixing this stuff up takes a lot of time and effort.

* * *

**Chapter Fifteen – Face the Facts**

The next thing Lily knew, she was staring at the all too familiar ceiling of the Hospital Wing. After countless pranks-gone-wrong in her past years at school, it was easily recognised, even as it spun hazily before her eyes.

_'What am I doing here?' _was the first thought that forced its way to the front of her mind, which was whirling incessantly back towards the unconscious state she had just recovered from. She wasn't sure whether or not she was still dreaming, thanks to the lead that seemed to have taken up permanent residence inside her forehead. She blinked, grunted, then pressed a hand gently to her brow, surprised to find that there was no pain there at all.

Then, so suddenly it made her jump, a face appeared just above her. Self-conscious for no reason that she could deduce, Lily sat bolt upright, startled. The sudden motion made her stomach lurch and she lunged for the empty bucket next to the bed.

Gasping, Lily raised her head, still unbelievably dizzy.

"What, is my face really so repulsive that it made you vomit?"

Lily froze. The deep voice was one she would have recognized anywhere, and suddenly she was feeling self-conscious again. She wasn't sure what had just happened, or what she had done to embarrass herself – though she was quite sure she had done _something_. Letting her vision adjust, she looked up at the face that still loomed over her, not quite so close now. James had taken a few steps back while she retched, and now he stood at the foot of Lily's bed, a concerned frown knitting his brows together. But there was a twinkle of amusement playing in his eyes, too, and Lily couldn't help but laugh lightly at his comment; a notion which forced Lily to assume that some kind of drug had been administered since her arrival. _Laugh_ at Potter's remarks? As if.

"Probably," she croaked, touching her raw throat with two fingers.

James gave a chuckle, shifting his feet and looking at the ground. "How are you feeling? You gave me a right good scare back at the meeting. I didn't even know you were sick until then. Would you care to tell me what actually happened?"

Lily groaned, not sure she wanted to launch into a full explanation of her mysterious illness and its cause. "I woke up sick this morning," she said simply. "That's why I didn't go to any classes. But I thought it had passed by the time I went downstairs. Obviously I was wrong. But now... well, I feel fine."

One corner of James's mouth twitched as he looked at her with an eyebrow raised. "Madam Prunica had you drugged up a bit more than I'm sure is natural. It's a wonder you haven't lost your mind completely."

"I'm talking to you – that's got to count for something." The retort rolled off her tongue before she could even think twice about it. James looked uneasily at his feet again, and Lily bit her tongue so hard she actually flinched. He really hadn't said anything to set her off. It was only instinct.

The awkward silence ended abruptly when an odd-looking nurse that Lily had never seen before bustled into the room with a tray full of questionable items, bottles and jars mostly filled with strangely coloured substances. "Ah, she's awake at last!" the nurse exclaimed as if this little occurrence made her day. She hurried to Lily's bedside, set down the tray on the table at the foot of her bed, and began to poke and prod. "I've already introduced myself to your little friend here, darling, but I'd better make myself known to you, too. I am Madam Prunica, filling in for Madam Pomfrey while she is required on urgent duty at Saint Mungo's. Do not worry, though, my dear, for I am equally qualified, and have specialized skills in many areas beyond what your usual nurse has acquired."

Lily was startled by the long and rather perturbing introduction. Feeling a little uncomfortable, she sat still as Madam Prunica wrenched her mouth open, peered down her throat, peeled back her eyelids and actually tried to _listen_ to her pulse by holding Lily's wrist up to her own ear. James and Lily exchanged baffled looks.

Upon finishing the inspection, the nurse began to throw an assortment of odd questions at Lily, scarcely giving her time enough to answer before moving on to the next. "How is your throat? Did the Mendo-Vorcus do the trick? And your heart, is it steady? You're going to have to figure out the cause, my dear, or this will never heal."

"Err... excuse me?" Lily asked hesitantly, taken aback.

"Oh!" Madam Prunica screeched as if the sky was falling, making both Lily and James wince. "You do not know of the sickness! My poor, unenlightened girl!"

The pair that was not in the middle of declaring the end of the world glanced at one another, bemused expressions on their faces. Lily was surprised at the fluidity with which they could communicate using only their eyes. Clearly, James was thinking the same as she was – they needed to get out of here before this woman elaborated on whatever strange disease she seemed to think Lily had, or else continued to rave about the horror of it all and pronounced Lily a living vegetable. Lily wasn't certain she would like to go anywhere with James at the moment, but it presented itself as her only option, and she was willing to take it.

"Is it alright if I leave now?" she asked very forwardly, making to get up and go.

But Madam Prunica wasn't so keen on letting her leave.

"Oh no!" she hollered, shoving Lily back down onto the bed with exaggerated force that made the girl cower down low with frightened eyes. "You mustn't leave! There is much to do! We must begin the cleansing process, or else your heart shall not be mended and you may be stuck in here for the rest of eternity!"

While Lily's eyes shot open to the size of snitches, James kept his cool and spoke back. "Well we certainly don't want that," he said firmly, some distress in his voice. He grabbed Lily's shoulder, motioning subtly toward the door. In one lithe movement, Lily leapt from the bed, but Madam Prunica wasn't going to let her go without a fight. Soon, Lily had become a living elastic as James held fast to one arm and the livid nurse tugged fiercely at the other.

"This girl is sick at heart, young lad! Treatment cannot be postponed! It is a life-threatening case! Would you be comfortable holding responsibility for her death?" She gave an extra hard yank and Lily winced.

'_Life threatening?'_ Lily thought, alarmed. _'What is she on about?'_

"I'm sorry, Madam Prunica, but I don't think you're qualified to give such a diagnosis. We're going to go now." James strengthened his grip on the other arm; he was clearly much stronger than Prunica, but the mad old woman wasn't giving up. At James's words, her eyes bulged and her face turned an ugly shade of puce, reminding Lily of Peter's apologetic card.

"You... you _dare_ question my qualifications, laddie?" she practically growled, now pulling so hard on Lily's arm that she cried out in pain.

"I do," James said with fire in his eyes as he pulled Lily back in his own direction. He was really getting into this now. "Who hired you anyway, Madam _Prune_?"

"Why you little…" Prunica glared icily at James.

Then, all of a sudden, the woman gave such a forceful tug that Lily went flying across the room, crashing into a table full of medicines and falling in a heap on the wooden floorboards. Dusting a few pieces of broken glass from her striped sweater, she looked up, only to realize that both James and Prunica were still fully engrossed in their argument. Her head was beginning to pound again as she watched.

"I'll be reporting you to Dungledore, I will!"

James laughed. "Good luck with that!" He flashed his badge at the woman, whose nostrils flared.

"Oh, you think you're so smart, don't you?" she growled. "I'll show you!" She reached for her wand, but James was too quick – he shouted the spell before she had even grasped her own wand.

"Petrificus totalus!" he bellowed, and Madam Prunica was as stiff as a board. Lily watched in horror as the nurse fell to the floor with a sharp '_smack_' and James put his wand away.

"Well," James said, sizing up his work. "That ought to hold for a while."

"J-James!" Lily finally managed to find her voice. "You just… cast a _spell_ on a teacher!"

James grinned. "Yeah. I've always wanted to give it a try. Mind you, she's barely a teacher, so it's not _quite _the satisfaction I wanted…"

Lily blinked, then burst out in laughter. Really, the situation was quite funny; an enraged old woman lying on the floor of the hospital wing, a broken table and a pile of smashed bottles, and her and Potter – _Potter_ – standing at the scene of the crime. James joined in, and they laughed together for a few moments. Finally, realizing the absurdity of what was happening, Lily stopped suddenly. James, clearing his throat, looked at the ground.

"Well," he said after a minute's pause. "We'd better get going. In case she… you know, wakes up."

Lily looked down at the woman, who stirred at that very moment.

"Come on!" James hissed at her, and they both ran from the room.

They covered the first few corridors at a sprint, flying down the stairs in their haste to get away in time. When they finally stopped to catch their breath, both panting hard, they had, coincidentally enough, reached the Gryffindor portrait hole, and the Fat Lady raised an eyebrow at them in disdain.

"That was a close one," James said breathlessly.

"Yeah," Lily agreed. "One more second and we'd be goners. She'd probably have tied us up and diagnosed us with ear fungus or something."

James laughed heartily. "You're probably right."

Once they were both breathing relatively evenly again, they stood up straight, finding themselves, oddly enough, facing each other.

After a moment of awkward silence, Lily debated what to say. "Um, thanks," was what she finally decided uneasily upon.

"No problem," James answered with a grin, running a hand through his messy hair.

Suddenly, Lily burst out, "Look, I'm really sorry I overreacted about the whole peephole thing."

James nodded slowly, looking a tad confused. "You don't need to be. We acted like idiots. We're the ones who should all be sorry. And I am."

"No, really," Lily insisted, not entirely sure how the words were forcing their way out of her mouth. "It was just a practical joke. I should be used to those, but I guess… well, I don't like seeing my friends get hurt."

"Neither do I," James agreed. There was silence for a couple of seconds.

"Oh, and Potter," Lily added. He looked up at her. "You heard what I said – well, what Hannah said about me – that night, didn't you?"

James looked at his feet, shifting them uneasily, and nodded. Lily's heart jumped – he _did_ know.

"Well… I'm not going to pretend it wasn't true."

James met her gaze then, his hazel eyes alight with some kind of indistinguishable excitement. He opened his mouth to speak, hesitated, and then launched forward. "Really? 'Cause Lily, I –"

"PRONGSIE!"

The portrait door swung open, and Sirius's booming voice echoed around them.

"I've been looking for you all over, mate! Say, what are you doing with Evansie?"

Remus appeared just behind him. "Sorry, Prongs. He got into a box of chocolate frogs. Haven't got a clue where he found them…"

James sighed, glanced at Lily almost apologetically, and smirked at Sirius. "Wouldn't you like to know?" he said. Sirius's eyes widened as his friend put an arm around his shoulders and started to steer him back into the common room. Remus gave Lily an uneasy smile as he, too, reentered the room.

"You going through or not, girl?" the Fat Lady asked impatiently.

Lily thought for a moment. "Not just yet, thank you," she told the portrait politely, and turned on her heel, hands in pockets. She needed to clear her head – but this time, it wasn't for a negative reason. Her headache was gone, she didn't feel sick at all anymore, and for the first time in a long while, Lily had a smile on her face.

* * *

Sorry it was so short compared to most of the other chapters. I just wanted to get through this little piece with Lily and James, and then move all the other dramas into another chapter. I didn't want to complicate the perfect ending with a pile of catastrophes.

Just to let you know, I'm going to be doing some major re-formatting on this story (some of the chapters have gone all mutated for some reason, so I need to fix that). If anything goes crazy while I'm working with it, don't be alarmed. I just hope I don't need to take anything down.

Leave me a review if you feel like it :) And don't forget to visit the website, the link to which is on my profile page. :)


	16. Forgive and Forget

**Plot:** The infamous Marauders weren't alone in their love for pranking. In fact, they often had their butts kicked by a bunch of girls. Now, this is it. Seventh year. Four girls, four boys. Two opposing pranking teams. One hell of a battle to be won.

**Disclaimer:** Sad as it may be, I am not J.K. Rowling in disguise, and therefore I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters or themes involved. (I do, however, own Jamie, Hannah and Regan and most elements of this specific plot—so I'd appreciate it if no poaching occurred. Thanks.)

**WARNING (please read): **This is the unedited version, meaning I wrote it a few years ago when my skill level sucked and I had no idea how to properly structure a story. So if you'll please ignore the terrible grammar, dodgy sentence structure, OOC-ness, plot holes, canonical inconsistencies and general immaturity of this whole chapter while I plough my way through all this editing work, that would be greatly appreciated. :) I'm in the process of fixing up all the chapters right now, but you'll have to be patient, because (as you can probably tell just by reading a couple of sentences below) fixing this stuff up takes a lot of time and effort.

* * *

**Chapter Sixteen – Forgive and Forget**

The second Rogue meeting of the year was held the night after Lily escaped Madam Prunica's wrath.

They gathered on Jamie's bed while Alice and Rosalie were in the common room working on the Astronomy charts Regan had so uncharacteristically completed an hour earlier (really, she had only escaped to the girls' dormitories to escape Peter as he tried to approach her for the sixth time that afternoon, and had figured she might as well do something productive while she was hiding out up there). They drew the curtains shut, and Lily performed the soundproofing spellwork.

"So," Regan began, rather excitedly, with a hint of malevolence on her voice. "I think we've got a lot to talk about."

"Do we ever," Hannah agreed, though her voice was dark, and she didn't smile.

Lily frowned at her friend's lack of cheer. What had happened to upset the usually cheery Hannah? She hoped it wasn't anything too serious. Lately, she'd been quite concerned about her friend's wellbeing, and this sudden drop in mood worried her.

Jamie, too, was sulking; she played absently with the tips of her hair, eyes downcast. Lily knew this had to have something to do with Remus – but what had gone on today, she wasn't sure. She felt like she'd been missing out on a lot of things lately, what with her mysterious illness (which had just as mysteriously disappeared after her last words to James) and other distractions, she and her friends had been leading separate lives for the past few days. She was glad they had a chance, now, to get together and talk, for the first time since the... incident.

"Who wants to start?" Regan asked, though it was obvious from her jitters and general hype that she was itching to offload something in particular. Either that or she'd simply had a little too much dessert.

"You should," Hannah answered dryly.

Regan eyed her suspiciously. "What's up with you, Han?"

"I'll tell you when it's my turn, won't I?"

Regan exchanged a _there's-definitely-something-wrong-here_ glance with Lily, who nodded almost imperceptibly before speaking. "We have as much time as we need. Go ahead, Regan."

Regan hesitated, and then launched into a heated description of the past few days.

"I can't BELIEVE him! I apologised for hurting his feelings, and suddenly he thinks we're friends. What's wrong with his head? I mean, I always _knew_ it was demented, but this is just... just..." she groaned loudly, throwing her hands up in distress. "I can't cope with it."

Lily laughed lightly. "He thinks you're friends? Really? How did that happen?"

Regan rolled her eyes. "Well, I approached him after DADA, and told him... well, that I misjudged him, and that I didn't fully mean what I said that night when they were eavesdropping. Nothing else. Then he suddenly got the impression that I _like_ him or something." She snorted. "He keeps coming up and trying to _talk _to me. About homework, Quidditch, anything that strikes up a conversation. Only, I can't remember when we started being on speaking terms. Before I know it, he'll probably be asking me out or something. HOW did I get myself into this? I do NOT remember hiring Pettigrew as a personal stalker."

Lily laughed uneasily, watching Hannah and Jamie's expressions at the same time. She felt like she was trying to keep up their sides of the conversation at the same time as her own, and it was making the whole situation quite awkward. Hannah simply scowled down at the quilt beneath her, while Jamie looked entirely distracted, gazing at the ceiling as if trying to memorise the patterns there.

Lily decided she might as well keep the exchange going. "Uh... sounds like a weird situation, there."

Regan laughed, the sound of it slightly deranged. "Weird?" she stopped laughing, cleared her throat, and looked very seriously at Lily. "I want to kill him."

"I wouldn't go quite _that_ far," Lily chuckled. "Maybe you should just... keep your distance. Make sure he knows that you don't want to talk to him, but don't actually say it to his face. We don't want him all down in the dumps again..."

"Trust me," Regan assured her, "we do. We want him in the very pit of the grimiest sewer in London, buried in a pile of rotting mushrooms. _Anything_ that will get him the bloody hell away from here."

Unexpectedly, Hannah spoke. "At least he respects you, Regan," she said glumly.

Regan threw aside the very concept of manners. "Do you want to tell us what's got you so depressed, Hannah? 'Cause we're all wondering."

_Well, maybe not Jamie...,_ Lily thought; the girl was still silent as can be (even more so than usual). Jamie, however, raised her head infinitesimally when Regan initiated this leg of the conversation.

Hannah grimaced. "I thought it was already quite clear."

"We know you're upset with Sirius..." Lily clarified, "but nothing he's done has every gotten you _this_ down. Did something happen?"

"Yes, something happened!" Hannah snapped, her brown eyes lighting up with anger. "That blast-ended skrewt of a boy decided to _apologise_."

Lily was confused. "But... isn't that a... good thing?"

"NO!" Hannah's response was furious, making Lily flinch. "That idiot and his twisted mind should be locked up, I swear!" The volume of her voice rose with each word, and Lily was thankful that no sound could possibly escape from the immediate area.

Both Lily and Regan remained silent, afraid they might get Hannah fired up even more if they intervened at all. Thankfully (for the sake of their curiosity alone) Hannah went on without encouragement.

"I'll tell you what he did," she said, laughing darkly and looking at the curtains with a disdainful expression. "He decided to give me a box of _chocolates_. What could be a better gift for a pig, anyway? Maybe a set of scales, but still..." She shook her head, smiling a dull smile. By now, furious tears were streaming down Hannah's cheeks. Her next words came out slightly choked. "You've got to hand it to him for being so clever."

"Oh, Hannah," Lily said, putting an arm around her friend's shoulder. "You shouldn't let him get to you like that. Besides, he probably didn't mean it that way. I mean, it doesn't sound like a very _Sirius _thing to do, but maybe he _was_ just trying to be nice."

Hannah shook Lily's arm off, suddenly fuming again. "Black? Being _nice_? What, are you _defending _him now?"

Lily drew back, bewildered. "That's not even close to what I was getting at, Hannah."

"Oh, are you sure?" Hannah cried. "Well, I wouldn't be that surprised, with you and James all buddy-buddy and all that..."

"What?" Lily was shocked. What was Hannah talking about?

"Don't act all innocent, Lil. I saw you both this afternoon – _smiling _at each other. Like you're friends or something."

"I'm NOTfriends with ANY of the Marauders, Han. I don't know what you're thinking."

"Well, you can keep pretending things are that way. But I see the truth."

Lily suddenly remembered Hannah's words of advice, given several days ago. "Hang on, whether or not we're on the same page here, weren't _you_ the one who said you'd support me no matter what decisions I made?"

Hannah simply glared for a minute, apparently stumped. When she spoke, her voice was heated again. "Of course I was. But you can't expect... with everything they've done to us... with all that's happened recently..."

Finally, Lily had had enough. "That's it," she snapped. "I'm sorry, Hannah, but you're being immature. Sirius was trying to apologise, because he was genuinely feeling bad about what he said. I would know – I was right there in the Heads' Room when he got the idea. And one little argument with a stupid boy is no reason to go around sulking and acting like your best friends are conspiring against you. I thought you were better at seeing the bright side of things. I guess I was wrong." She swung her legs around the side of the bed, pulling the curtains open and feeling the tiny jolt of electricity in her fingers as the Muffliato charm was broken. "I need a break from this," she said, fed up, and strode away.

As soon as she was a metre away from the bed, Lily felt almost regretful for her words, and for getting up and leaving like this. It wasn't right of her to walk away from a meeting. It wasn't right of her to yell at Hannah, either. She had definitely overdone the scolding on some level.

But in another way, Lily felt she had done the right thing. She didn't want Hannah to keep sulking like this. She missed her old, more cheerful friend.

Things were changing – that much was clear. A few months ago, Lily couldn't have fathomed the thought of getting into a shouting match with one of the Rogues – even now, she was pretty shaken up about it. But, well... there was more to disagree about now. Lily was a little concerned at how big a role the Marauders were playing in all this. Maybe it was her fault, for being 'buddy-buddy' with James, for letting him throw up a facade when he and his friends were doing so many nasty things to the Rogues...

"Lily?"

Lily whipped around, startled. It was Jamie. She stood a few metres away, having just left the meeting as well. Her arms were crossed, her face troubled – Lily knew there had to be something on her mind, judging by this and how quiet her friend had been for the duration of the meeting. For a moment she wondered if Regan had sent her out here as an attempt at peacekeeping.

"Hey, Jamie," Lily said, and sighed. "Sorry about just then. I just..." She shook her head, then turned away slightly.

"What?" Jamie seemed a little out of it. "Oh, no, don't worry." Her voice dropped to a whisper as she came closer. "I think you're right about all that, anyway."

"Thanks, but I'll bet Hannah doesn't think so." Lily turned and started toward the foggy window. She placed her elbows on the windowsill, propped her chin in her hands, and stared out into the twilight. The moon was full tonight, lighting up the Hogwarts grounds with a sad sort of glow that mimicked the atmosphere inside the dormitories. Some of the trees were rustling lightly in the autumn breeze.

"This year is just getting weirder and weirder."

Lily hadn't even heard Jamie come up beside her. The girl was on her left, imitating her position exactly. Jamie's eyebrows were pulled together, her lips curved into a worried frown.

"Tell me about it," Lily replied glumly.

"Lily?"

"Mm?"

"Do you think Remus hates me?"

"What? No! Definitely not. Why would you think that?"

"I talked to him the other day." Jamie sighed. "He started yelling at me."

Lily was stunned. "Remus _yelled_ at you? But he... he wouldn't hurt a fly!" Indeed, it wasn't at all characteristic of Remus to be aggressive in any way.

"I thought so, too," said Jamie, sadly.

"What exactly did he say to you?"

"Well, I felt bad for ignoring him like that," Jamie began, her frown deepening. "So I decided to talk to him. He just snapped at me and said it wasn't the best time to talk, that all of this was harder for him than it was for me, and that I should just stay out of his way."

Lily's jaw dropped. "What? That's not like him at all!"

Jamie sighed again. "Exactly. So he really _must_ hate me."

"No, don't think that way," Lily told her, shaking her head. "There's something going on here. Something... weird. I can't put my finger on it."

At that moment, there was a sharp _crack_ outside, making both Lily and Jamie jump.

"What was that?" Lily asked, alarmed.

"Look! Over there!" Jamie gasped.

Lily followed Jamie's gaze, and was alarmed by what she saw – the old Whomping Willow, very much alive and thrashing about as if trying to swat a thousand flies with its club-like branches. Only, it could do damage to something _much_ bigger and stronger than a fly with those things. The raging tree gave the ground an enormous wallop, breaking the dirt into crumbling bits and shaking itself before taking aim again. It was worked up about something, becoming incessantly violent in its fury. By the time the tree took its fourth shot, Lily's night vision had adjusted and she saw a figure – and a very human one, too – scurry away from where the branch had just hit. The figure narrowly missed the next hit, ducking out of the way just in time.

Lily didn't even notice when Hannah and Regan joined them at the window, both just as much on edge as they watched the spectacle unfold.

The tree continued to hit at the ground with furious blows, and the figure kept on darting out of the way. That was, until the tree suddenly straightened up and stood motionless in defeat.

"How did it...?" Lily was flabbergasted.

Only now did Lily notice how short and pudgy the figure-with-a-death-wish was. Now two more people – both with messy, dark hair – beckoned to him from near the Whomping Willow's trunk, and he stumbled stupidly forward, disappearing into the shadows. All three of the figures were gone, then, and there was no indicator left of what had just gone on, save for a couple of rustled-up leaves that were still fluttering to the ground. Lily had to wonder if she had imagined the whole thing; her friends' wide-eyed expressions eliminated that option instantly.

There was a stunned silence for a few seconds, broken eventually by Regan. "Did you guys see that, too?"

Lily nodded fervently. "Was that who I think it was?"

"It definitely looked like them," Hannah said, her eyes alight with the same kind of excited suspicion Lily had seen on her face before.

Suddenly, Lily felt very guilty for her outburst in the meeting. She broke up the discussion briefly to apologise. "Look, Hannah, I'm sorry. I didn't mean everything I said before. I just don't like seeing you so upset." She smiled slightly, hoping her apology would be accepted.

Hannah's face had a light in it now that hadn't been there before, and Lily knew that part of her old friend was back, at least. "Hey, don't worry about it," Hannah said. "I _was_ being immature. I mean, the thought of _anybody_ trying to defend a prat like Black... What was I thinking?" She rolled her eyes, and Lily laughed. All was forgotten.

"Sorry to break up this little kiss-and-make-up session here, but did we not just witness the Marauders trying to hijack the Smashing Spruce?"

"The Whomping Willow," Lily and Jamie corrected simultaneously and automatically.

"Whatever," Regan said with a roll of her eyes. "But anyway, what was with all that? I've never seen Pettigrew move so fast. He was like a headless chicken in a meat factory."

They all laughed at this remark – even Jamie, though she still looked a little distracted.

"What do you think they were doing down there?" Lily wondered aloud. "I mean, I know they're troublemakers, but I didn't think even _they_ were crazy enough to go up against that tree."

All was silent as the girls pondered the possibilities.

"Hang on a minute," Hannah said after a few moments, her voice sparking with a sudden excitement and curiosity. "I just remembered something."

She flitted away, opening her trunk and practically disappearing into its depths. She returned a minute later with a large, old book in her hands. As she brought it closer, Lily could see that the binding was an emerald green, and the spine was marked with golden letters.

"What's that?" Regan asked, leaning over Hannah's shoulder to get a better look at it. Lily did the same, and Jamie stood by silently, showing vague interest.

"I got it out of the library a little while ago," Hannah explained. "Thought we might be able to have some fun with it. But now that we've got a case on our hands... well, it might be just the thing to help us out."

Lily drew back from the huddle. "But Hannah, this is a book about _animagi_."

"Exactly." Hannah smirked conspiratorially. "What better way to disguise than to pull a little shapeshifting act? It's perfect, if we want to figure out what those idiots are doing provoking that tree."

Regan was catching on now, a mirror of Hannah's smile on her face. "It's got to be dangerous."

Hannah nodded. "And very, _very _difficult."

"Not to mention, we'd be breaking every law in existence." Honestly, Lily wasn't that bothered by the idea.

"We could be expelled," Jamie pondered.

They exchanged sly glances.

"I'm in," announced Hannah, thrusting her hand out into the space between them.

Regan placed hers on top. "Definitely."

"It couldn't hurt." Lily added hers to the pile.

The fourth group member was hesitant.

"Jamie?" Lily asked. "What do you think?"

Jamie paused, thinking for a moment, before sticking out her hand and sealing the deal. "Anything to bust their sorry butts."

* * *

Well what do YOU think? Only one way to make your opinion known – leave a review. Or die. Muahaha.

Err... yes. Sorry about that. The next chapter will be up in a week or so. Unless I get some unforeseen time this week... but I doubt it. We'll see how we go.

Sam :)


	17. The Blackmail Master

**Plot:** The infamous Marauders weren't alone in their love for pranking. In fact, they often had their butts kicked by a bunch of girls. Now, this is it. Seventh year. Four girls, four boys. Two opposing pranking teams. One hell of a battle to be won.

**Disclaimer:** Sad as it may be, I am not J.K. Rowling in disguise, and therefore I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters or themes involved. (I do, however, own Jamie, Hannah and Regan and most elements of this specific plot—so I'd appreciate it if no poaching occurred. Thanks.)

**Chapter Notes:**

GAH.

I'm going to save the pathetic excuses this time. I'm sorry, I guess. Life is always gets hectic (or else I get distracted) whenever I plan for quick updates. There's not much more to say. But I've got a long chapter for you this time, so please, be happy with it! And please, PLEASE leave a review, if you have time (actually, whether or not you have time). You know how much I appreciate them. I actually wasn't particularly motivated to write this chapter because I wasn't sure how many people were still reading. Please tell me there are some of you left? Anyway, go ahead and read... :)

**Quick note (8/10/10):** I've got a quick edit scheduled for this chapter, but nothing major. I actually feel like the chapters from here on are fairly decent, plus I'm kind of lazy, so I'll most likely just fix up the technical mistakes but otherwise leave them as they are. That is, when I get around to it (which probably won't be for a while).

* * *

**Chapter Seventeen – The Blackmail Master**

"Okay, Lily, you go first!"

Hannah's voice was excited amidst the dull morning chatter, and Lily looked up from her porridge to see her friend beaming at her.

"Alright," Lily said, frowning, "but I don't see how this is going to work."

"Trust me, it will," Hannah assured her, and put the book in the middle of the table. "Okay. First question. _What is your favourite animal?_"

Regan snorted. "What kind of rubbish quiz is this?"

"It's _supposed _to be the most reliable Animagus Suitability Calculator in existence." Hannah shrugged. "Oh, crap. McGonagall."

The hawk of a professor was striding over to them now, clearly having noticed their vaguely suspicious behaviour. Lily saw Jamie pull out her wand, and, ever so subtly, mutter an incantation directed at the book.

McGonagall arrived shortly after. "Miss Milton," she asked, "what _is_ that book you're all studying with such interest?"

Hannah put on her most convincing smile – she was always the best for this job. "Just putting in some extra revising time, Professor," she said angelically, and flipped the book shut so McGonagall had a clear view of the cover. The title, scrawled across a navy background, read: '_Advanced Transfiguration for the Advanced Transfigurer.'_

McGonagall's eyebrows lifted in surprise, and she gave a tiny "Hm" before walking away.

"Is 'transfigurer' even a word?" Jamie asked.

"I doubt it," said Hannah, shrugging again. "Now, on with the quiz, Lily."

Lily rolled her eyes and tried to concentrate. "What was the question again?"

"Favourite animal."

"Oh, right. Er... turtle, I guess." She was really just blurting out the first thing that entered her head – Lily was fond of most creatures, mortal or magical, and didn't really have a preference anyway.

A loopy silver script worked its way across the page of the book (it was indeed the Animagus guide, and had nothing to do with transfiguration in the slightest), spelling out _'turtle.'_

"Next question," Hannah went on, "_What, in your opinion, are your best qualities?_"

Lily snorted. "What? I'm not answering that."

"Come on, Lils, don't be so modest," Regan urged.

"It's not modesty. It's... well, I don't know what my best qualities are. Uh... brains, I guess?"

Regan took this opportunity to launch into an extensive list. "How about beauty, kindness, loyalty, helpfulness – not to mention leadership, composure, creativity..."

"Okay, okay!" Lily snapped. "I get the point! Can it just write down what Regan said?" she begged, but the book had already scrawled out every word that it had picked up on.

"Right. _Favourite day of the week_."

Regan and Jamie let out a short laugh; Lily looked doubtfully at Hannah, who just said, "Go!"

"Err... Saturday."

"_Describe your ideal partner_." Both of Hannah's eyebrows pulled up as she read the question.

"WHAT?"

"Just answer it, Lily. Please. Come on."

Lily drew in a deep breath; it was okay. She could lie. The book couldn't pick up on fibs, could it?

"Okay, well... tall. Muscular. Loyal. Intelligent. Brave. Strong. Loving."

Hannah eyed her quizzically.

"What?" Was it really that obvious?

"Lily, you just described every twelve-year-old girl's Prince Charming."

"So?"

Hannah rolled her eyes; Regan and Jamie were whispering to each other off to the side, and this made Lily a little mad. Hannah went on after a few seconds' hesitation.

"Okay, now, this is the last part. You have to place your thumb print right... here." She pointed to the outline of a small circle in the bottom corner of the page.

"Why?"

"Oh, come on, Lily! Don't ask questions. Just get it over with."

Lily narrowed her eyes at the book, wondering what it could possibly determine through physical contact, before closing her eyes and jabbing her thumb into the paper. She held it there for a few seconds and then pulled away.

"There there, Lily. You can open your eyes now. It's over."

Opening her eyes, Lily peered distrustfully at the book, which was now erasing everything on the page. Soon, three silver letters had formed in the center of the page: _Doe_. After that, a few lines of smaller print appeared: "_A beautiful, serene animal, she can smell danger from miles away. Her loyalty to the herd makes her the perfect companion._"

"Well done, Lils!" Hannah gave her a pat on the back as she released several breaths in one. "Now, who's next?"

The girls all took the quiz (some what grudgingly, in Jamie's case). Hannah's suggested animagus form was a tiger, Jamie's a fox, and Regan's a bullfrog.

"_What?_" Regan practically exploded upon reading her result. "A _bullfrog? _'_Lazy and tranquil you are – except when confronted with a particularly juicy fly_.' What the hell does that have to do with anything?"

Hannah laughed. "Maybe that 'particularly juicy fly' is Pettigrew," she suggested.

Regan picked up her knife and held it about an inch away from Hannah's throat. "Say another word and you die," she hissed menacingly, and Hannah's answering laugh was uneasy, and Regan drew away. "Nah, just kidding. But seriously–" she pretended to slit her own throat "_– _not funny."

"Alright then," Hannah said a few moments later. "Everybody's got their animagus suggestion. Anybody thinking of changing?"

Regan's hand shot up into the air. "_Thinking_ of changing?" she said with a slightly mad laugh. Hannah nodded in understanding.

"I'm not sure about a tiger," she said. "Maybe something a little more inconspicuous... a cat or something?"

Lily nodded fervently. "You'd make a great cat, Hannah."

"Jamie?"

"Uh... yeah." Her voice was quiet. "I think I'll stick with the fox."

"Sounds good," Lily agreed.

"What about you, Lils?" Regan wondered.

Lily wasn't sure. Her suggestion _sounded_ alright, but something about it made her uneasy. It seemed almost _too_ fitting. "I... might think about it for a while."

"Sure. No hurry, for now." Hannah smiled. Lily noted for a brief moment that Hannah's mood had improved quite significantly since they had begun their plotting against the Marauders. Whether this was a good thing or a bad thing, she wasn't sure.

Regan rambled on about choosing her animagus form. "I'm definitely _not_ turning into some slimy green blob. What use is that? I might as well be a dead slug. Anyway, how about a zebra? That would be pretty awesome. Or a bird... Now _that_ would be fun!"

The others giggled at every outrageous suggestion Regan came up with, while Lily tuned out. She glanced over at the Marauders; they all seemed subdued today, sitting quietly and staring at their plates. She watched Sirius's lips move as he murmured a few words to James, and James say something back. They all looked... well, completely dead, to tell the truth. Was that a cut she saw under James's left eye?

"Guys, I was thinking..." Lily was brought back to attention by her quiet friend's voice. Jamie was looking at them with a small anticipatory smile.

"Yeah?"

"Well, while we have the upper hand, we might as well take advantage of it."

Hannah's brow creased. "What do you mean, Jamie?"

"Think about it." It was strange, watching Jamie's face light up at the prospect of revenge, when she had always been so reserved when it came to sharing ideas. "_We_ saw them last night, out of bed after hours – not to mention fiddling with that odd tree. We could tell McGonagall if we wanted to get them into trouble, but really, why waste it all right now? There are so many possibilities, if we draw it out longer..."

She stopped to let the words digest. Not three seconds later, Hannah burst out, ecstatic.

"Jamie, you're a GENIUS!"

"Yeah," Regan added. "Since when are _you_ the Blackmail Master?"

Jamie shrugged and smiled a shy smile. Lily gave her friend a hug, glad that she was finally speaking up, but also curious as to what could have brought on this sudden thirst for revenge.

* * *

James knew that last night had been difficult for Remus – more so even than usual. He suspected it was because it had been the first full moon of the school year, but then, Remus had also been more stressed out than ever before, what with all the recent Rogue-related drama. Could that affect him in his werewolf form? It seemed likely.

He had not only made the transformation quicker than usual, but was also more feral and downright impossible to tame. The wolf had rampaged deep into the Forbidden Forest, herded by the three animals that were his friends (whether he was aware of it or not), tearing through trees and sending the forest creatures packing with his vicious snarls. After completing a long-winded circuit several times, Remus had proceeded to rip a few seedlings out of the ground and ravage Hagrid's pumpkin patch in just a couple of seconds. He then headed for the Quidditch stadium and would certainly have torn that apart, too, if Sirius and James hadn't been so intent on stopping him.

The stag and the black dog earned themselves numerous cuts and bruises in their attempts to drive the werewolf away from the school, while the rat conveniently lagged behind for most of the night (James would get Peter for that – and more – later). What was really killing James, though, was what he had done to Remus while he had been in his savage form.

There had been absolutely no other way of keeping the wolf under control all night. He and Sirius had quickly run out of energy, and Peter was slacking off as usual. Knocking the wolf out (a rock to the head) was the only thing they could do to keep the creature sedated, though, even then, they had to keep a constant eye on him as he slept.

So clearly, all the Marauders – except for that lazy rat – were absolutely wrecked in the morning when they sat down to breakfast.

"Hey, Prongs." Sirius stretched out a tired arm, fingering but not quite grasping the edge of a large serving plate. His voice was an incoherent mumble. "Can you pass me the pun...pumpkin juice?"

James nudged the plate in Sirius's direction with his elbow. "Yeah. Here. But it's not pumpkin juice, Padfoot. It's scrambled eggs."

"Oh, yeah. Forgot..." Sirius's words merged with a loud yawn as he dumped the contents of the plate into his goblet. James sighed, rolling his eyes.

Remus, to his left, was poking his fork halfheartedly into a strip of bacon, over and over again.

"Anything you want to talk about?" James offered, stifling a yawn of his own.

Remus shook his head. "Not here."

James nodded, figuring his friend was best left alone for now. He turned his barely functional attention back to Sirius, whose face was now one with the breakfast plate in front of him. Mangled snores could be heart through the mountain of hash browns he had his face buried in. James nudged his friend, but he merely grunted in reply.

He hated mornings like this. Sirius could usually be counted on to have a truckload of energy at the beginning of any day, to deliver some kind of inappropriate joke, and generally just make everybody forget about being serious (ironic as that word might have been in such a situation). It didn't look like he would be bursting to life anytime soon, and so the uncomfortable silence stretched on...

The next thing James knew, he, too, had taken a nosedive into his plate. Wondering how long he'd been like that, he lifted his head, wiped the eggs off his glasses, and turned to Remus. He was surprised to find that, apart from the four of them, there were very few people left in the Great Hall. In fact, the only people left were staring at the Marauders, seemingly amused by the spectacle.

James groaned. "How long was I out, Moony?"

Remus looked up, eyes glazed over, as if he had just been snapped out of some sort of trance. "Uh...," he started, "I'm not sure. Wasn't paying attention to the time. It couldn't have been more than twenty-five minutes, though."

James was brought to his senses very quickly then. "Yikes. Late for Transfiguration. McGonagall's not gonna be too happy."

Much to James's bewilderment, his academically-driven friend let out a laugh.

"What? Don't you realise we're in for a few weeks' – make that months' – detention?"

Remus shook his head, eyeing James as if he were missing the punchline of some fantastic joke. "Prongs, it's a Saturday."

The wave of relief that washed over James then was almost physical – the sense of relaxation that came with every weekend was something he'd almost forgotten about (it had, after all, been a whole week since he'd last felt it) and it was magnified several times by the fact that it had managed to slip his mind.

"Well, that's one good thing," James said, smiling as he settled back into his seat. He looked over at Sirius. "Err... Should we pull his face out of those potatoes or what?"

"Yeah, I gue–"

"Morning, sleepyheads!"

James's head jerked around at the intrusive feminine voice, only to find the Rogues standing behind them, arms folded, highly entertained expressions on each of their faces. James had a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach – had they been watching all this time? – but his mood lifted considerably when Lily's gaze flickered to his and one corner of her mouth lifted in a small smile. James grinned back without being too obvious, and looked to Hannah, who had spoken. The blonde had her eyes (which were narrowed as she smirked) on Sirius's dark head, where he was still snoring into his hash browns.

She raised an eyebrow. "Who's the pig now?" she asked, grinning wickedly. It was clearly a rhetorical question.

From behind her, Regan grasped Hannah's shoulder, pulled her back, and whispered something almost reprimanding in her ear (James didn't hear the words, but the tone was evident enough from the hissing quality of Regan's voice and the scowl Hannah wore afterwards).

"Anyway..." Lily moved forward, the peacemaker as always. An impish grin was on her face. "We've come to deliver an offer. Or rather... an order, I suppose, since you haven't really got a choice..."

James raised an eyebrow at her. He wasn't sure what approach to take – distrustful, as would be natural, or mischievous, playing along with what she said. He chose a combination of the two, so that it could be interpreted either way. "Oh, really? And... what might that be?"

Regan cut in. Her poker face, subtly challenging, was always perfect for dramatising things. "Truth or dare," she said surely.

"Only this time, without the truth." A new voice, this time – Jamie's was bitter.

Regan winked. "The Black Lake – tonight, eight o' clock. Be there or be–"

"Square?" Peter piped up hopefully. His voice startled James – up until now, he hadn't been entirely sure of his pudgy friend's presence.

Regan grimaced. "No, you pea-brain. I was going to say pineapple."

James knew she was leaving Peter to contemplate that (which would take him a fair while), and, sure enough, his eyebrows knitted together in confusion, and he looked away, visibly struggling to make sense of her words. James sighed.

Remus was skeptical. "What makes you think we're just going to obey your 'order'? We _do_ have a little something called free will, you know."

"Easy," Lily said with a gleaming smile. "You four don't show, we tell McGonagall what we saw last night."

"What you saw...?"

"That's right." Hannah's voice was so full of preconceived victory that James suddenly felt very small and helpless. "We saw you," she went on, "last night."

"Bothering the Smashing Spruce," Regan added with a nod.

"_Whomping Willow!_" Hannah and Lily corrected her simultaneously.

Regan rolled her eyes. "Alright, alright. Sheesh. You're all a bunch of nerds. Now, what do you say, dearies? Do you understand, or do you need us to drill it into your thick brain a few more times?"

James wasn't paying attention to her joking words. He was too busy digesting what he had already heard – the Rogues had seen the Marauders 'bothering' the Whomping Willow. How much did they know already? He exchanged a glance with Remus, and they both seemed to communicate the exact same thing: _this is bad. _Really_ bad_.

"Earth to the Marauderettes?" Regan waved a hand in front of James's face. "Hello? HELLO?"

It was at that moment that Sirius (presumably woken by the noise) jerked back, yanking his face out of the plate. His face was covered in an inch-thick layer of mashed up potatoes, and he looked more like the abominable snowman than a human being. "HUH?" he cried out. "What'd I miss?"

The Rogues burst into a fit of uncontrollable laughter. James, unable to help himself, did the same, and though Remus was clearly holding back, he too let a few chuckles escape. On the other hand, Peter was so startled that he expelled a high-pitched shriek and flew backward off his chair, finding himself sprawled out on the floor. This just made the Rogues laugh even harder than before.

It was an inevitable part of being at Hogwarts that McGonagall would choose to walk by at the very worst times – this was no exception, and the crabby professor appeared just moments later.

"Heavens," she said, "what _is_ going on here?"

Nobody could stop laughing (or in Peter's case, whimpering) long enough to give her a reply. Sirius, having absolutely no idea what was going on, simply shrugged and looked confused, but when McGonagall laid eyes on his monstrous face, she cried out in shock and jumped back a few feet. "Mister Black! Good gracious! Go and take that horrid mask off your face before you give somebody a heart attack!"

And with that she walked briskly away, casting disapprovingly shocked glances back at them every few metres and holding a hand to her chest.

"Would somebody _please_ tell me what's going on?" Sirius demanded. "Why does everybody keep looking at me like I've got vegetables sticking out of my ears?"

Hannah drew in a steadying breath to stop herself from laughing. "Because you _have_ got vegetables sticking out of your ears!" she said, and doubled over in a brand new fit of giggles.

"Or rather, spilling," Regan chipped in, before she too collapsed.

Sirius searched the table frantically with wide eyes, before snatching a glass pitcher full of pumpkin juice and studying his reflection in it. He, too, leapt backward in fright, launching the pitcher to its death on the marble floor in the process. All four girls now were rolling on the ground, tears streaming down their faces, while James and Remus clutched their sides. Peter, meanwhile, was still in a heap on the floor, looking thoroughly stunned.

By the time they had all recovered, Sirius was wiping the last of the mutilated hash browns off his cheeks. He wore a furious expression as they all eyed him – their expressions all threatening to change from serious to hysterical as soon as he so much as said something slightly out of place.

"Seriously, _Sirius_," Regan said, (James thought that pun was becoming a little too common) "Didn't you notice you had something on – or rather, all OVER – your face?" A short laugh escaped her lips, which she was pressing firmly shut.

Sirius said nothing, but just glared.

"Yeah," Hannah added, "I mean, isn't your face like the only thing you care about? If you couldn't even pay attention to that, then I wonder what that's saying about you..."

"Shut up, Milton," Sirius snapped, and Hannah fell uncharacteristically silent. James wondered why she was suddenly taking orders from Sirius. Usually, she would have a retort to throw back, to silence him (although normally, that didn't work either). But the tension between Hannah and Sirius had been changing, escalating, since the beginning of the year. Of course, that was the case with many things...

"Anyway," Lily said, stepping in again, "we've got better things to do than hang around here talking to you lot, so I guess we'll see you at eight. Well, we'd _better_ see you at eight." She turned around, and the others followed suit.

"What?" Sirius burst out. "What's happening at eight?"

"Oh, nothing," Hannah said cheerfully. "We're all meeting up to smother each other in potatoes. But, since you've already done that to yourself, I don't think you need to join us..." The girls started laughing again, and continued to walk away, giggling to one another.

Lily shot a minute, inconspicuous smile back to James, but he did not return it – he wasn't in the mood for playing nice, however much any smile from Lily melted his heart. The redhead's brow creased as she turned away, clearly wondering what had changed. Well, to put it simply, Lily and her friends had just put the Marauders in a situation they had hoped never to be faced with.

Remus, he noticed, never once took his eyes off Jamie's retreating figure.

Sirius turned to his friends. "Did you two agree to a dinner date with the Rogues or something? 'Cause really, guys, that's not funny. They're a nightmare."

"Calm down, Padfoot," James explained. "Actually, don't calm down. It's not a dinner date. They've... challenged us."

"So what? We can whoop their butts, no problem."

"Er... Not this time, mate. They saw us last night, entering by the Whomping Willow."

Sirius blinked. "What?"

"I've got a _very _bad feeling about this, Padfoot." James turned to his sandy-haired friend, who had been silent for quite some time. "Remus?"

"We're going to have to be _really_ careful around the Rogues from now on" was all Remus said, staring at the table all the while. The others nodded.

Sirius was still in shock. "But... how? How could they have seen us?"

The three of them turned to Peter, who was still on the ground staring blankly into the distance, and then back to one another.

"Wormtail," James muttered. "If he hadn't provoked that darn tree–"

"I mean, _seriously_, after all those full moons," Remus said a little remorsefully, "how can you still run straight into the wrong side of the tree?"

The rest of them shook their heads, and turned back to Peter.

"Wormtail? Would you care to explain yourself?"

Peter was silent.

"Wormy?"

"Pineapple...," Peter mumbled. "I don't get it. 'Be there or be _pineapple_'..."

James and Remus burst into laughter for the umpteenth time that morning, while Sirius was, yet again, totally oblivious.

* * *

I hope you liked it! I'm excited for the next chapter, so I'm going to say (but don't quote me on this) that you can _probably_ expect an update sometime reasonably soon. Please bear with me, as I'm trying to write whenever I get the chance, but there's just a lot going on at the moment. I really can't wait until the summer holidays (though they're not until December), 'cause then I'll just get to write and write and write and write... Ah, that's going to be sooooo awesome! Anyway, I'm going to shut up.

Keep me motivated by writing a review. Please?

Sam :)

Oh, and you should also check out my writing website. The link's in my profile. There's a blog, some pictures, lots of links, a TMATR survey and some other cool stuff. Please have a look and don't forget to sign the guestbook and take the survey ;)


	18. Crayons and Chaos

**Plot:** The infamous Marauders weren't alone in their love for pranking. In fact, they often had their butts kicked by a bunch of girls. Now, this is it. Seventh year. Four girls, four boys. Two opposing pranking teams. One hell of a battle to be won.

**Disclaimer:** Sad as it may be, I am not J.K. Rowling in disguise, and therefore I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters or themes involved. (I do, however, own Jamie, Hannah and Regan and most elements of this specific plot—so I'd appreciate it if no poaching occurred. Thanks.)

**Chapter Notes  
**I know, I know… I'm a sucky updater. But here's the surprise: this time, I have a super-mega-extra-long chapter for you all! That's right, no more lousy 2-3 thousand word chapters – this one's 7,598. If that doesn't make you happy, then I don't know what will. Well, I suppose that's assuming there are actually readers out there to make happy… Sorry if this chapter's a bit confusing. If you have any questions, feel free to leave them in the form of a review (this isn't a scam or anything : ) and I'll answer them as quickly as possible. Anyway, I guess there's already enough for you to read without having to read all this blabber beforehand… What are you waiting for, then? Read the chapter! (If you dare… Just kidding. Anybody with Peter Pettigrew's level of wits or higher will deal just fine with this chapter.)

**Quick note (8/10/10):** I do have a quick edit scheduled for this chapter, but since this one isn't particularly old, I don't feel like I need to do much to it. If you have any suggestions for changes, though, feel free to run them by me in the form of a review - or, if you've already reviewed (in which case I congratulate you... with cookies), in a private message.

* * *

**Chapter Eighteen – Crayons and Chaos**

"That's one… two… three."

Jamie stopped pacing and stood back, waiting for the door to materialise in the wall in front of her. Nothing happened.

"Are you sure you did it right?" Lily asked. It was a stupid question – Jamie was clearly the thinker of the group, and she'd done this for them many times before. "I mean, your mind isn't preoccupied or anything, is it?"

"Her mind is always preoccupied," Regan scoffed. A light pink blush lit up Jamie's cheeks as she backed away from the wall.

"Here," said Hannah, "I'll give it a try." She took a deep breath before starting slowly across the marble tiles of the seventh floor, closing her eyes as she concentrated deeply. The others held their breaths as if awaiting very grave news as their blonde friend paced a few lards along the wall – once, twice, and then a third time, before finally looking up at the still-blank space before her. Again, nothing appeared, and the others exhaled simultaneously in disappointment.

"So much for that," Hannah sighed. "Maybe we should find someplace else to practice. You don't suppose Filch would-"

"Hold it," Regan said in a commanding voice. "Let me just try one thing…" She strode forward, gently shoving Hannah aside, to stop in front of the seemingly very stubborn wall. She glared fiercely at it. "You," she spat, planting her fists on her hips. "If you don't let us in now for our Animagus training, I will personally send this entire floor up in flames, stuff it with exploding snap cards, and curse you in as many ways I think of. And no, Filch will never find out it was me. Are we clear?" Her gaze was fixed on the stone wall, which didn't change in the slightest.

Hannah snickered. "Nice try, Reegs, but I don't think that works."

"Wait," Regan growled, not breaking eye contact (or rather, eye-rock contact) with the wall. "Move it, NOW!" she barked furiously, and gave it an enormous punt with her right foot. The impact made her fall backward in pain, cursing as she clutched at her toes in agony.

"I hate to say it, but I told you so," was Hannah's comment as she patted Regan's shoulder with a sympathetic smile. "Really, we should just get going and-"

"Guys," interrupted Jamie, her voice vaguely astonished, "look."

Lily followed the girl's directing finger with her eyes, finding that she was pointing at a small patch of colour near the bottom of the wall. It was rapidly growing, and, soon enough, it took the shape of an arched door, which settled into place right in front of their wide eyes.

Lily blinked. "We did it."

"_I_ did it," Regan corrected, hoisting herself into a standing position. "Honestly, you three should have more faith in me after all these years."

Hannah raised an eyebrow. "Sorry to break it to you, honey, but if all those years of knowing you have taught me anything, it's not to trust your intellect in difficult situations."

Regan feigned hurt. "Fine," she said with a pout on her lips. "You three obviously don't know how to appreciate true talent. I guess, since I got the door to appear, I'll just head on in and practice on my own while you sceptics stand out here and wait for Filch to catch you." She started toward the newly formed door, but Hannah's arm shot out to stop her.

"Not so fast, Smart Alec," she said with a mischievous grin, and reached into the black bag that was slung over her shoulder. "See? I have the book. So, unless you've memorised every page-" (she flicked through the three-inch-thick volume for emphasis) "-you kinda need us." Hannah folded her arms as if to say that the argument was won (although the whole thing was clearly still a joke).

Regan was quick as she lunged for the book, but Hannah was even quicker, and she yanked it away just in time. They continued to squabble over it, Regan pouncing from every angle and Hannah always managing to keep the prize out of her dark-haired friend's reach, until Lily stepped in and broke up the play-fight.

"Enough, you two," she said, grinning as she snatched the book effortlessly from a distracted Hannah's grip. The bickering girls looked up at her in surprise before their faces softened – the resulting expressions were not dissimilar to those of two puppies with their tails between their legs. Lily smiled at the comparison and pushed past Regan and Hannah to open the door to the Room of Requirement. "Come on, idiots," she said, rolling her eyes as she held it open for the others.

"Whoa," was the unanimous assessment as they stepped in, all four frozen just inside the doorway.

The room had transformed beyond anything that any of them had seen before. Each of the Rogues had used the Room many times throughout their years at Hogwarts (sometimes unknown to the others) for various reasons – prank-planning, escaping from the Marauders, extra study (though that was the rarest of all reasons). Regan had discovered it by accident in third year when Peter had been following her relentlessly through the corridors; she'd walked along thinking, "Please, _please _let me escape from this loser," when the door had appeared out of nowhere. As soon as she had managed to duck in, Peter was locked out – better, still, the entire room had been filled with Peter Pettigrew voodoo dolls, dart boards, and other such anger-relieving devices. Since then, the four of them had used the Room of Requirement whenever the need presented itself, as it often did.

But now… Now, this was even better. The Rogues needed a place for their Animagus practice – they couldn't have asked for anything more suitable than what Regan's threats and physical assault had apparently earned them.

The first thing Lily noticed was the ceiling – or rather, the fact that she couldn't see it. The effect was similar to that of the Great Hall in that the walls rose tremendously high and the ceiling (when Lily's eyes finally found it) mimicked the sky outside. The walls were painted with intricate designs involving – as far as Lily could tell – thousands of different creatures, and in full colour, too. The floor was not the hard marble of the corridors, but soft, natural terrain, ranging from lush grass to jagged rocks and powdery snow. There was even a waterfall and steaming hot spring in one corner. In the centre of the massive room, however, a large red mat was spread out on the floor (which was quite even here) with a white circle marked in the middle, about a foot and a half in diameter, and what looked like an old-fashioned music stand in the middle of this. In the corner opposite the waterfall, four armchairs were arranged, facing one another, with a small, circular table between them. Around the walls were numerous cabinets filled with random oddments and artefacts, though from the threshold Lily didn't have a very clear view of what they were.

Hannah, without taking her eyes off the masterpiece, patted Regan on the back. "I might have to take back my comment, Reegs, 'cause this is amazing."

Regan nodded smugly. "Well, duh. Now it's my turn to say 'I told you so.'"

"Guys," Jamie said quietly, "do you reckon the book might go there?" She pointed at the important-looking pedestal standing in the white circle.

"Well, let's see." Hannah strode over to the red carpet, book in hand, and placed it where Jamie had suggested. Immediately, she leapt back, startled, as the book opened and the pages leafed through themselves at an alarming rate. Finally, they settled at a page near the beginning, and the book appeared to fidget and adjust its position on the stand before finally ceasing movement altogether. "Hey, look!" Hannah exclaimed, beckoning the others over.

Lily made her way over to the book, where Hannah was beginning to read aloud from the page. Regan and Jamie closed in behind her.

"'_Before You Get Started_'," Hannah recited, "'_Tips_ _on how to best approach your initial transformation_.' Good thinking, Jay. I think the book's telling us where to start."

Jamie shrugged. "Well, it only seemed logical…"

"Shh," said Regan, who was looking closer at the words on the page. Jamie fell silent. "Look here – '_Tip Number One: It is entirely essential that you have fully decided on the Animagus form you wish to take before attempting any kind of transformation. Inadequate decisions may result in dangerous side effects such as permanent transformation, an unwanted Animagus form, and transformation into an inanimate object._'"

"Yikes," Lily said, "that's not good. I mean, I still haven't chosen… You don't think we're rushing into this a bit early, do you?"

"Nonsense," said Hannah in a very McGonagall-ish tone. She laughed and adopted her own voice again. "What do you think those are for, silly?" She pointed at the armchairs in the corner. "We've still got time to think about this. But it's great that we've got a place to work, now. It means those darn Marauders won't disturb us – or worse, find out what we're doing."

Regan nodded fervently. "And that pathetic excuse for a human being can't pester me. Only, I kind of wish I still had those voodoo dolls in here…"

Jamie spoke up. "Hannah, you're sure nobody can get in, right?"

"Ninety-nine point nine-nine percent positive," Hannah said confidently, struggling a bit with the articulation. Jamie frowned, obviously disturbed by that point zero-one percent. "Oh, come on, Jamie, ease up. We've been using this place for more than three years, and we've never been caught by Filch, or the Marauders, or anybody for that matter. Why should we be worried now?"

Jamie shrugged and cracked a smile. "It's nice to be away from the Marauders, isn't it? I mean, it seems like they're constantly on our backs these days."

"Does it ever," Hannah said with an annoyed roll of her eyes. Lily and Regan nodded in agreement.

"Anyway, down to business," said Regan, heading over to the decision-making corner. She plunked herself down in the black armchair, looking thoroughly at home. The other three joined her in the next few moments (Hannah slipped the book under her arm and placed it on the table at the centre of the congregation), and they launched very quickly into an excited discussion.

"Okay, so I guess we need to get it straight – down to the very last detail," Hannah began. "From what I've been reading, we need to know exactly what we want to look like, size, markings and all."

"That's a bit hard with a bullfrog, isn't it?" Regan scoffed.

"I thought you were changing," Lily recalled, confused.

"I know, I know," said Regan. "I'm just… exploring my options."

Hannah exchanged a sly glance with Lily before speaking to Regan. "Sure you are. We all know you secretly want to be a beautiful bullfrog so that Pettigrew can kiss you and you'll become a princess and you'll both live happily ever after in a fairytale land." She clapped her hands together and batted her eyelashes dreamily.

Regan gagged. "Ugh! It makes me sick just hearing the words 'Pettigrew' and 'kiss' in the same sentence. I'll pretend you didn't say that, Han, so that I don't end up with my best friend's blood on my hands."

"You think you could take me out, Tain? Well, you'd better-"

Lily decided now was the best time to intervene, before things got too out of hand. "Cut it out, you two. We came to sort out our Animagus stuff, not to bicker about the Marauders. Remember?"

"Okay, okay," said Hannah with a dismissive wave of her hand. "We'll be serious. Promise."

Regan snorted, clearly restraining from making another Marauder-related remark, and Hannah whacked her on the back of the head before turning her full attention to Lily.

"So," she said, "have you done anymore thinking about what you want to be?"

Lily sighed. Of course she'd been thinking about it, but she hadn't made any real headway on a decision. "Not really," she said, looking at her knees. She wasn't sure why it was worrying her so much. It wasn't as if it was life-changing or anything – of course, there was no going back once she had made her choice, and that was what often stumped Lily, who had often wondered if she might suffer from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, a Muggle condition she had learned of from her parents. What was wrong with a doe, anyway? She'd be strong, fast and agile – not to mention she would blend in perfectly in the Forbidden Forest.

"Lils?"

"Hmm?" Her head snapped up and her eyes met Hannah's brown ones.

"I asked if you'd considered consulting he book again. It isn't normally wrong about these things, as far as I know, but I'm pretty sure there's more in there that can help you choose."

"Sure," Lily answered.

She and Hannah got up and walked back over to the book stand, placing their Animagus Guide in its rightful spot. Again, its pages ruffled as soon as it was in place until it settled on another page near the beginning. The title of this one was "_Decision-Making Dilemmas and How to Overcome Them_."

"Right," started Hannah, beginning to scan through the text with her index finger. "_'Making the final decision on your Animagus form can be a very difficult process, but making sure to consider all angles can be a considerable help. First, it is important that you pick an animal with which you are very familiar, so as to avoid inaccurate transformation and the resulting side effects._" She took a break to glance up at Lily. "Does that help?"

Lily thought for a moment. Could she picture a doe in perfect detail? The answer to that was obvious – of course she could. As a young child in Muggle family, Lily had grown up with colourful picture books. Her favourite, undoubtedly, had been the one involving a family of red deer, the one she'd read over and over again without ever managing to tire of it. And her most memorable childhood song? '_Doe, a deer_', of course.

"'_Second tip'_," Hannah went on, "'_If concealment issues are not noted, there is opportunity for great danger later in your Animagus journey_.'" She rolled her eyes at the obvious cliché. "_'Depending on the area in which you expect your transformations to occur, if your animal is not easily hidden it should be quick enough to escape unwanted attention. For this reason it is not recommended that you take the form of a hippopotamus while living in a congested urban region_.'_"_

"Okaaaaaaaaaay…," commented Regan, who had just come up behind them with Jamie shadowing her.

"No, wait," Hannah giggled, pointing to the next piece of writing on the page. "_'This lesson was proved worthwhile by the unfortunate Sir Barnabus Billowmouth who in 1918 was tranquilised and imprisoned in the local zoo, where he passed the remainder of his days pleading his case_.'" By the end of her recitation, Hannah, along with the others, had collapsed into giggles.

"Well," said Lily, "I'll certainly think twice before deciding to become a six-hundred-pound lump, then."

"Pettigrew had better watch it," Regan managed to gasp out, before falling to the ground in silent laughter.

* * *

It wasn't until ten minutes later that the Rogues finally got their act together and decided once and for all to be "serious" (the joke in this was, for a second time, pointed out by Regan and scowled at by a thoroughly unamused Hannah). Hannah let the book find the next relevant page before taking it off its stand and placing it in the centre of the gathering they had formed on the red mat.

"What's it given us this time?" Regan asked, rubbing her hands together in excitement. She leaned over the book as Hannah set it down to get a closer look. "_'Penultimate Preparations – Sketching Your Fate_.' You know, I'm starting to think this Flechbert freak was a little bit loopy."

"Join the club," Hannah said.

"Wait a sec." Lily, who had been taking a look at the page as well, interrupted. "Does this thing want us to actually _sketch_ our Animagus forms?"

"Oh, crap." That was Regan. "That's going to be a problem."

"Why?" asked Jamie. "Because you haven't decided on your animal yet?"

"Oh, I've decided," Regan clarified with a wink. "Scarlet macaw all the way." This seemingly split-second decision surprised Lily. "I was just testing you guys earlier. It's the sketching I'm '_oh crap_'ing about. If you'd ever witnessed four-year-old me armed with crayons, you'd understand."

Hannah burst out laughing. "Oh, I remember that alright. Even your father couldn't figure out a spell powerful enough to get your 'masterpieces' off the walls."

"So what does the book say?" Jamie asked, interested.

Hannah cleared her throat. "'_Before you attempt to transform, it is strongly recommended that you produce a detailed sketch of your chosen creature. Any materials will do, as long as you have a very clear image in your head and an accurate representation on paper once this step is completed.'_ …Then there's a bunch of gibberish about why not to waste your time drawing hippopotamuses because they're too similar to elephants and rhinoceroses… Oh, and '_This representation can be a helpful tool that you may resort to later in the transformation process._'"

"Well, good," was Regan's analysis. "It says '_strongly recommended'_. That means we don't actually have to do it."

"I don't think we can, anyway," said Lily with a chuckle. "I mean, there isn't anything in here we can use for drawing." She paused. "…Is there?"

Suddenly, there was a startling '_BANG!_' from the back wall. All four Rogues jumped to their feet in surprise; Jamie even clutched Regan's arm as the sound of the apparent explosion hit their ears.

"What the _hell _was that?" Hannah exclaimed, backing away from the source of the noise. There was a dark cloud of smog rising up there, clouding the girls' view. The others said nothing, but simply stared, wide-eyed, at the scene before them.

It took a few moments for the smoke to clear away, but, when it finally did, the Rogues could see that one of the cabinets had blasted open and that its contents lay strewn across the floor. Hannah headed forward first, closely followed by the others.

"Oh, I get it," said Lily with a smile, picking up one of the catapulted items. It was a wooden drawing board, and on the floor next to where it had been was an extra-large roll of parchment as well as several battered-looking quills. "So I guess we really are supposed to sketch our Animaguses… or Animagi… whatever you say."

"The correct term is Animagi," Jamie tossed in quietly. "We learned that in DADA two years ago."

"Cool," said Hannah, distracted. She was busy collecting the rest of the strewn drawing utensils. She hesitated, her hand hovering over a tiny, unidentifiable yellow box, before she smirked and scooped it up. "Hey, Reegs," she said, "I think these are for you." She tossed the box of crayons to her friend.

Regan smirked. "Man, these should really have a '_keep out of reach of Regans_' warning on them."

"Hey, wait a minute…" There was enlightenment in Hannah's voice as she hesitated over another item on the floor. She picked it up and showed it to Lily and the others; it was a blackened and mangled box, about the size of her palm, and Lily recognised it immediately – she was about to comment when Regan beat her to it.

"That's not…," she started.

"Oh yes, it is." Hannah beamed. "Exploding Snap. They're all over the place. You mustn't have done a very good job of conjuring this place after all, Regan."

The other girl shook her head, amused. "Nah, I think the Room just likes me."

"Okay, guys, enough dilly-dally," Lily said, breaking up the conversation. "It's pushing four o'clock."

The girls had spent most of their Saturday morning getting head start on their weekend homework – an atypical habit for a particular couple of them – and, after making a significant dent in each of their piles of assignments, had decided to get a bit of fresh air before the Animagus training session they had planned for one-thirty. Unfortunately, Hagrid had caught them and roped them into weeding his pumpkin patch for a good hour and a half, before serving them a lunch of rancid turnip stew in his hut. By the time all this was finished, _and _they'd spent thirty-five minutes in the bathrooms rinsing out their mouths, several hours of their precious afternoon had been wasted.

Taking the drawing supplies back to the armchair circle, the girls sat down together and remained silent for a few lengthy moments.

Regan, as usual, broke the quiet streak. "Okay, so… what exactly are we supposed to do?"

"Draw your animal, I guess," replied Hannah, shrugging with a quill in her hand. She glanced down at the book, which lay open on the table in front of them. "_'Every marking; every hair, feather and toenail_', it says."

Regan groaned. "Why can't we just use magic? There's got to be some… pictorial replication charm, hasn't there?"

"Wow, who knew Regan Tain had a vocabulary beyond '_I-hate-Pettigrew_'?" Hannah chuckled before rolling her eyes. "Of course we can't use magic, stupid. This is just an exercise to get the images stuck into our heads. If we actually go through the effort, it'll be more solid in our memories. Get it? Or should I run through it one more time?"

Regan made a "_fine then, smartie pants_" sort of face at her before looking down at her drawing supplies and sighing in defeat. "Well, here goes. But if you three so much as crack a smile at my pathetic attempt, these Crayons will be stuffed down your throat. Capiche?"

The others nodded, restraining from looking amused by pretending to be completely focused on their own work. Lily stretched the parchment over her own drawing board and poised her quill – it was then that she realised she had no idea what she was doing.

"Err, Hannah?" she asked.

"Uh-huh? Oh! Damn, Lily, I forgot you hadn't chosen yet. That was dumb. We don't have to do this part right now, you know… We can have another look at the decision-making tips if you want."

"No, it's fine," Lily said with a smile. "I'll just stick with the original suggestion. I guess the book knows best, right?"

Hannah grinned. "Right. As long as you're sure?"

Lily nodded in assertion. After all, there was no need to be such a perfectionist, prolonging the process by being indecisive. Her friends had chosen with certainty, so why couldn't she? Actually, now that she'd finally decided one hundred percent on her Animagus form, she felt relieved, and, more than that, stupid for being so fussy. As she'd tried to convince herself earlier, it really was far from a matter of life or death.

The Rogues lapsed into a very out-of-character silence as they all tried to psyche themselves up for this artistic activity. Having spent most of her life in the magical community, Lily found it difficult, at first, to warm up to manual work again. She had never been particularly talented at drawing, even when it had been a more common hobby, but then she couldn't remember being notably terrible either. Deciding it was best to focus on _what_ she was drawing and not _how_, Lily began to sketch out the Animagus form she wished to take, and found it came quite naturally to her once she got started.

* * *

Some forty minutes later, Regan exploded. "That's IT!" she cried, exasperated, as she tossed everything onto the floor. The others were broken out of their trances by her outburst, jumping a few centimetres off their seats when the stretch of silence was disrupted. Regan, her face red and her eyes livid, heaved a frustrated sigh and crossed her arms resolutely. "I give up. If this is what it takes to become an Animagus, then obviously I'm not an ideal candidate."

Hannah gave a small laugh as she got out of her chair and then reached down to pick up Regan's discarded artwork. "Oh, come on, Reegs. It's not _that_ bad…" Her words were contradictory to her expression, though, which clearly stated that the parchment contained something highly amusing.

"_Not that bad_?" the infuriated artist repeated incredulously. "Have you got brain damage or something?"

Lily, too curious to help herself, got up and stood behind Hannah, looking over her friend's shoulder at the apparently disastrous attempt. Straightaway, she had to stifle a laugh with her right hand. Even Jamie, who had followed the lead of the others, let out a small giggle before shutting herself up for her own sake. Regan didn't fail to notice.

"See? You guys promised you wouldn't laugh." She brandished a fistful of the crayons she hadn't spilt, and the others backed away noticeably.

"Calm down, Regan." Lily's voice wavered as she tried to keep from laughing. "Hannah's right – it's not as bad as you probably think."

"Are those warts?" Jamie asked, pointing to something on the drawing. "Or polka dots?"

"ARGH!" Regan groaned, and snatched the parchment and board away from her friends. "Okay, drawing exercise over. No more laughing. Is there a fireplace or something in here I can use to destroy this?"

"Cool it," Hannah said. "It doesn't matter, anyway. At least you have a vague idea of what you want to look like."

"I do _not_ want to look like an upside-down toadstool covered in lumpy mould!"

Hannah tugged an edge of the picture back toward her and examined it once more, her head tilted to the side and one eyebrow arched. "Actually, that's a pretty accurate description of what you've drawn here."

"Thanks," growled Regan. "You know, I did warn you about the crayons."

"True…" One corner of Hannah's mouth lifted. "I've still got very fond memories of those days. Well, some not-so-fond ones, too."

Lily understood how it must have been for Hannah and Regan, who had grown up as next-door neighbours and spent so much time with together that they had come to regard one another's homes as their own. Their families couldn't have been any more different – while Hannah's place was your typical warm, happy household, Regan's parents were stricter than McGonagall and Marsh put together, and her older brother was… well, weird was the only word that could be used to accurately describe Zachary Tain. Still, the families had bonded like two sides of Velcro and even Hannah's thirteen-year-old sisters, Annie and Clara, had warmed up to the weird ways of the traditional wizarding family and Regan's sardonic nature.

It reminded Lily of the days before Hogwarts when she and a young boy who had lived nearby had been tight friends. Once a timid, friendly child, that boy was now the prime target (aside from the Rogues) of the Marauders' malicious teasing and pranks, and despised Lily for having been made a Gryffindor. _Well, at least some childhood friendships last_, Lily thought to herself, looking between Hannah and Regan with a tiny smile on her face. The two were now exchanging animated comments about something or other that occurred on Diricawl Crescent in the early years of their friendship.

"Guys?" Jamie piped up. Hannah and Regan fell silent and looked to her. "I hate to be pushy, but we haven't got much time left, and if we keep getting distracted like this…"

Hannah laughed. "Getting distracted is our specialty, it seems."

"Great," said Lily almost impatiently (she, too, was eager to get things moving), "Then let's make our specialty actually setting our minds to something and getting it done. We'll never conquer the Marauders any other way, right?"

"Right. Come to think of it, I have a hard time picturing Potter and Black talking about Crayons and frog princesses when they're supposed to be working on pranks."

"Then we're going to have to beat them," Lily stated with a wink.

These words seemed to put a sense of urgency in the air, as the girls immediately decided to get to work. Hannah took the book to its pedestal and fished out the next relevant page; Jamie cleared the art supplies away with her wand; Lily took their sketches over to their new work station (the red mat) and retrieved new items from the cabinets - as Hannah instructed - using her perfected summoning charm. Regan, all the while, had taken her own drawing away and sat in the corner by the waterfall, shredding the parchment into tiny pieces and casting _Incendio_ on them before tossing them into the running water. All the while, she was muttering darkly to herself, Lily could only presume, about the failure of her artistic endeavour.

Not ten minutes later, they were gathered once again on the carpet and were now ready to get to work.

"My turn to read!" Regan said excitedly, stealing the book from Hannah, who seemed somewhat reluctant to let it go after being its unofficial caretaker for so long. "_'Beginning the Journey',_" she read aloud. "'_Your First Attempt and Inevitable Failure_.'" She frowned. "This Warbus Flechbert guy – what a pessimist."

"I think the pair of you can fight over that title," Lily said with a smirk.

"Shut up," said Regan. Lily shrugged.

"What are we actually supposed to do? I mean, to start off with," Jamie pondered. From the sound of her voice, Lily guessed she was becoming nervous about the whole Animagus idea. Jamie was often the one who got worried about things, sometimes for no solid reason. While Regan was the pessimist who pointed out the bad things in everything and everyone, Jamie was the worrier, the doubter of the group. Sometimes Lily wished she would get over her fear and just enjoy herself like everybody else. Then again, it wasn't as if Lily could talk – she was probably second to worst in that area, always needing to know that there was no real danger involved before launching into a new and unknown concept or exploit. This was a perfect example, and she had to admit Jamie wasn't the only one getting the jitters.

"'_Now it's time to attempt your primary transformation. But first, there is one final preparatory precaution you must take, and it is to consider these words of wisdom: becoming an Animagus is a very dangerous feat. It is advised that wizards still attending a magical institute do _not_ take this journey, as it is most certainly not for the faint of heart_, _or those instinctively cautious; it is most certainly not for the immature._'" Regan looked up. "What? Why is everybody looking at me like that?"

"You really want that answered?" Lily asked. Regan huffed and crossed her arms. "I didn't think so. But, moving on, what's so dangerous about becoming an Animagus, anyway? If we do it properly, I mean."

"Yeah," Jamie agreed, "I always thought it was just a straightforward shape-shift. McGonagall's one, isn't she?"

"She's a WHAT?" Hannah and Regan exclaimed simultaneously as they both looked up at her, their eyes wide with shock.

Jamie's voice died down a bit at the sudden outburst. "She's an Animagus. A… cat. Honestly, she mentions it a lot in class."

"That would explain why they don't know, then." Lily smiled. It was a known fact that Hannah and Regan absolutely _despised_ Transfiguration. It was a miracle if they paid attention to even a single word that McGonagall said in class or marked their parchment with a single note that wasn't a derogatory scribble passed between the two of them as they snickered about whatever the Marauders happened to be doing at the time.

"Hang on," Hannah interjected, sounding a little worried, "did you say she's a _cat_? Oh, blast. My Animagus form has been taken – by a teacher."

Regan sniggered.

"But seriously," Lily said, bringing the others back to the point. "What's the risk in the whole thing? The book's got me worried now."

Regan picked up the mentioned volume with her eyebrows pulled together and examined the next bit of text on the page. "It says here: '_In many areas of the wizarding community Animagi are associated with criminal intentions. This has resulted from dark wizards and witches using the Animagus method as a means of disguise in order to escape their sentence. Because of this, it is important that, as an Animagus, you remain well-concealed and tell no one of your secret identity._ _Exposure may result in an increased chance of conviction for crimes, whether or not you have committed them. In a few years there will be the option of being registered as an Animagus, and the choice here is yours to make. It is also suggested that you think carefully about the purpose for which you plan to make this bestial transformation available to yourself. If it is simply for fun or a childish game, I sincerely suggest that you turn back now and discard this book. If, however, you decide to go against this incredibly insightful piece of advice, I wish you the best of luck, for you shall need it._'"

There was silence for a moment or two before Hannah spoke.

"Wow. This is pretty dark stuff."

"So?" was Regan's casual, unconcerned comment.

"We shouldn't do it," squeaked Jamie.

The others all turned to lookat her. "What?" they said simultaneously, unable to believe their ears.

"You heard what the book said. This can get us into trouble if we're not careful. And think of how many dark wizards have done this same thing as we're doing right now…"

"Don't get cold feet now, Jay." Hannah put an arm around her shoulders. "We'll be careful, I promise. And besides, we're not doing this to commit a crime. We're just… investigating."

"And," threw in Regan, "You don't _really_ think all those dark wizards went about it the same way as us, do you?" Lily knew she was referring to the crayon catastrophe and the numerous other silly things that had sidetracked the girls over the course of the day.

"Well, I guess not…," sighed Jamie. "But we're never going to tell anybody about this, are we?"

"Not if you don't want us to," said Lily. "Just to seal it, I vote we make another pact." She placed her hand in the centre of the circle. "I solemnly swear I will not utter a word of this outside this very room, if I do not wish to suffer a most terrible death."

Regan put her hand on top of Lily's. "Death by Pettigrew sitting on me."

Hannah joined in with a laugh. "Of course."

Jamie sighed, but hardly hesitated before adding her hand to the stack. "I swear it."

Hannah jumped up very quickly, taking the book from Regan before the girl could even protest. "Well, good," she announced cheerily. "It's time to get started."

* * *

"Prongs, come and help me with this!"

James tried to drown out Sirius's voice for the millionth time that day, and instead turned to his more calming friend, who was just as focused on his work as James was trying to be. "How many inches does Marsh want again?"

"Twenty-four," Remus answered. James groaned in response; why did that creep of a professor have to be so cruel? He often suspected Marsh got her daily entertainment out of watching students suffer in and out of her classroom. Her assignments were even more unreasonable than McGonagall's; her class work, on the other hand, was a completely different story. He looked forward to the day the old hag announced her retirement. But then, she'd been teaching at Hogwarts for thirty years now. She would probably kick the bucket sooner than quit.

"Pro-ongs!"

Ignoring his whining friend again, James looked down at what he had written so far of his Defence Against the Dark Arts essay. It couldn't have been any more than ten inches. He sighed, putting down his quill, and rubbed his tired hand. He and most of the other seventh years had spent much of the day trying to catch up on homework, but even five solid hours of effort weren't enough to get through it all. The Marauders didn't have anything to do today; the few days after a full moon, for them, was usually down time, because they were too tired to plan pranks or schedule Quidditch practice. James was woken up slightly by the thought of that single word, _Quidditch_,and he wondered when McGonagall would give him the okay to start putting a team back together. That was… _if_ he was still Captain, with all the work he would need to be doing as Head Boy. James actually shuddered at the thought of Sirius running the team in his place – every player would be drunk on Firewhisky and falling off their brooms, he suspected.

"PRONGSIE! PRONGSIE! PRONGSIE!"

James finally relented. "_What_, Padfoot?" he snapped, getting to his feet and nearly falling over in the process. His legs were still covered in bruises and cuts from last night; these injuries could be easily healed with a one-minute visit to the Hospital Wing, but, from the first full moon the Marauders had spent as a group, they had agreed it was best not to attract any attention whatsoever to themselves during that time of the month.

"I can't write my essay," Sirius complained, shoving a slightly mangled piece of parchment into James's hands. He flipped it over to examine what his friend had written, only to find three wonky hearts containing the words "_Prongsie loves Lilsie_", "_Moony loves Love_" and "_Petey loves Regin_'".

James crumpled up the parchment and tossed it casually into the fire. "Very funny, Padfoot. Go get a life of your own, will you?"

Sirius's face was full of mock-hurt. "You destroyed my essay! What am I gonna hand in to Marsh now? Can't you write it for me?"

"Sure," said James. Ignoring Sirius's jubilant exclamations of "I love you, Prongsie", he yanked another piece of parchment toward him and started scribbling madly. Unknown to Sirius, his "essay" consisted of this:

_Yo, Prof, I'm Serayze Balk and I hate DADA with a passion. If you would consider transferring to another school (preferably Durmstrang as I hear there are man-eating serpents in Bulgaria) that would be greatly appreciated. For your information, I have several learning disabilities that render me incapable of structuring or even beginning to write an essay, so from now on if you would like to start giving me the 'T's I deserve, that would be great. I also have the IQ of a two-year-old. It might interest you to know that I am deeply in love with a certain girl named Hannah Milton and would appreciate any tips you might have on winning a woman's heart. _

_Sincerely, Serayze._

James threw the parchment at Sirius and walked away to give him some time to digest it all. As he walked past Peter, he made a comment on his essay. "Pete, you can't just write in huge letters all spread out across the page to make it longer." The pudgy boy sighed, disappointed, and started slowly and dramatically tearing up his parchment. By the time James was hit in the back of the head with a ball of paper, he had returned to his original spot and getting ready to work on his own essay again.

"Hey!" Sirius bellowed, actually sounding quite annoyed. "That was… uncalled for!"

"Calm down, mate. You sound like a teacher."

Sirius practically growled. "Yeah, well, so would you if somebody suggested you were in love with a pig."

James threw his hands up in defence. "Hey, don't get all hostile. Firstly, you _need_ to stop calling her that. And secondly, it's called a joke. You're famous for them, remember?"

Sirius muttered something unintelligible and turned back his chaotic pile of (undoubtedly blank) parchment. James, wondering why his least serious friend (if you could get past the pun there) was suddenly taking everything the wrong way, was just deliberating over the next sentence of his own work when Remus addressed him.

"Hey, uh, Prongs?"

"What's up, Moony?"

"I've been thinking, and I reckon we need to sort of… discuss… a few things. You know, as a group."

Little did Moony know, James had been planning on suggesting the same thing. So much had been going on in this first month of school, and he wasn't even sure what his friends thought of it, because they hadn't had a minute to talk about things without the Rogues showing up to pester them. They didn't have frequent gatherings with therapy-like chat sessions as he suspected the Rogues did, but they hadn't done much talking since they had arrived at school and it seemed like they needed to catch up on a few things, to make sure the four of them were still on the same page regarding… well, everything. James had a feeling that this might be easier said than done.

"Where and when?" James wondered aloud, expecting Remus – the one who always thought things through – to have decided on something.

"That's the trouble," said Remus. "Frank and Carter have already staked out the dorms – I overheard them raving about girls, _again_." He rolled his eyes, but there was also a bitter edge to his voice.

"We could go to the Heads' Room," James offered.

"The Rogues have been gone a couple of hours, so I expect that's where they are right now."

"Oh. Right." In fact, James remembered hearing Hannah whisper something about "the room" as the four of them walked out the portrait hole. There was, of course, the option of having the "meeting" in James's own sanction of the Heads' Room, but, remembering the events that had ensued the last time they'd been there at the same time as the Rogues, he cringed away from the idea.

"I guess that leaves…"

"The Room of Requirement." James's voice was a whisper too low for the ears of the other Gryffindors.

Remus nodded slowly as if weighing up the options, and finally made to stand up. "We'd better head off now – we still have our… erm… _appointment_ later on, and we can get all this done tomorrow." He gestured in mild disgust at the stacks of parchment, books, quills and ink bottles surrounding them.

James thought about it. The Room of Requirement was, of course, the ideal location for anything confidential. Few students at Hogwarts knew of its existence, and even fewer had been enlightened with the secret of how to get in. The Marauders had figured it out in second year when they'd been creating their magical map of the school and its complicated passageways – on the seventh floor, they'd seen an older student (a nasty Slytherin Prefect by the name of Frederick Goyle) pace the length of the corridor several times and somehow make a door appear there. From then on, for a couple of weeks, they'd tested out numerous strategies and eventually got themselves into the room. Of course, the first time, the room itself had had plain, grey stone walls and absolutely nothing in it – this had resulted from Peter's final attempt, during which he had been continuously thinking something along the lines of "Why is Prongs making me do this? We don't need a room for _anything_." The Marauders, however, had decided after all not to include the room on their map. It was the one place on the Hogwarts grounds that was omitted – this meant that, should the Marauders' Map be stolen and hacked somehow, the secret of the Room would not be revealed. Besides, they weren't even positive that it would show up if they drew it on.

The point was, if the Marauders had spent so much time trying to find their way in, there was very little (if any) chance of the Rogues having found it, even by now. As James recalled (or rather, had been told by Rosalie Williams, who shared a dormitory with the Marauders' female counterparts), the Rogues had their girly little meetings in the Gryffindor dormitories, using muffling charms. Well, it was lucky they had Lily on their side; it would take one hell of a charm to drown out the noise of four teenage girls – which meant it would take a miracle to drown out the noise of Sirius Black. So, as it stood, the Room of Requirement was their only option, and it seemed a good one, too.

James got to his feet. "Right. Wormtail, stand up. And you, Padfoot, get your lazy butt over here."

Like a pair of stubborn children, Peter and Sirius took their time getting up and following the others to the portrait hole. They then began to complain.

"Where are we going?" whined Peter, sounding so much like a girl that James almost laughed out loud.

"You'll find out when we get there."

James, Remus and Peter stepped through the hole, but Sirius stood still and folded his arms. "But I'm working on my essay!"

"As if," Remus snorted as James placed a firm hand on Sirius's arm and yanked him through the doorway; Remus swung the Fat Lady's portrait shut, and, despite Sirius's continued protests, the four of them were off.

* * *

**A/N: **I hope the length was appreciated, and not just exceptionally boring. I tried to stop when I hit about four thousand, but you know me… "Stop" means "write three thousand more words to finish it off." I won't promise a quick update, but I _will_ say this: I've sorted out most of what's happening in the next chapter, so it shouldn't take _as_ long as this one did. Sorry for rushing the whole Animagus thing in this one. I never really plan what I write – I just sort of go off on tangents and see where they lead me.

Want a really quick update? Make me happy and leave a review :) Good, bad, great, terrible – anything is accepted. I'll gladly take constructive criticism.

Sam :)


	19. The Fine Line Between Right and Wrong

**Plot:** The** Marauders** and their female counterparts, the Rogues, have been sworn enemies since first year. Seventh year means the big finale of their timeless battle - but it also means newfound maturity. Could this bring something more for Lily and her friends?

**Disclaimer: Harry Potter and all its characters and themes are the property of J.K. Rowling. The only characters I own are Jamie, Hannah, Regan and a few minors. Other than that it's purely fanfic.**

**Chapter Notes:**  
-braces self for onslaught of insults and profanities-  
-cringes-  
Yes, I know it's been something like six months since I last updated. I'm aware of how absolutely pathetic that is. I apologise sincerely, but I don't think that really does a whole lot of good. I should just learn to stay on task. My exams are coming up, so naturally I decided, "Hey, what a great time to work on TMATR!" My brain works in weird ways.  
For those of you who like long chapters, this one's an extra-super-mega-gargantuan chapter compared to the others. I hope it's not too boring.  
Anyway, I shall shut up now and let you read the chapter - because that is (hopefully) what you're here for. For now, I have an ice skating competition to get to. (And I'd be oh-so-happy to be surprised with lots of reviews when I get back. Pretty please?)

* * *

**Chapter Nineteen – The Fine Line Between Right and Wrong**

There was silence in the Room of Requirement. All four of the Rogues stood in an even formation, facing in toward the centre of the room; eyes closed, arms hanging limply at their sides, heads bent slightly forward in concentration. They hadn't spoken in twenty odd minutes, and the silence was intense. Lily's brow was furrowed; Jamie was biting her lip so hard it ought to be bleeding by now, and Regan's hands were beginning to ball into fists at her sides. Hannah, however, would have appeared entirely at ease had any of the others opened their eyes to look.

Regan exhaled in one quick burst as she broke out of her trance. "Well, this doesn't seem to be working," she concluded through gritted teeth. Lily slowly opened one eye to look at her, watching as the brunette sat down cross-legged on the carpet. There, she started tugging at one of the threads with a look on her face that suggested – no, _declared_ – that her patience was fully expended. The tugging soon turned into ripping and Lily began to fear for the carpet's life.

Concentration now fully disrupted, the redhead breathed out and shook her stiffening limbs. "I hate to say it, but she's right, Han. We're not making a lot of headway." She gestured at her completely unchanged, completely human body.

Jamie suddenly sneezed, calling the others' attention to herself. "Sorry," she said sheepishly, "I think I've been picturing myself with fur for a little too long."

Reluctantly, Hannah broke her static position and came to join the others, who were gathering on the floor with Regan. "Fine, we'll take a break. But we've got to have at least one more go at it before we leave. We're working on a tight schedule here, troops – exactly twenty-nine days to perfect our transformation abilities."

Regan cocked an eyebrow at her. "Exactly how obsessed _are_ you with this little scheme, Hannah?"

The accused gave a shrug and a smile as she sat down. "No more so than any of you, I expect." Even as she said this, she regarded Regan questioningly. "But _somebody_ has to take charge. Regan's the biggest procrastinator in the Northern Hemisphere. And you two-" she addressed Lily and Jamie, who were smirking at a highly offended Regan "-for some ludicrous reason, seem to think schoolwork is a priority."

Lily opened her mouth to object, but thought better of it and simply crossed her arms in a defensive gesture, while Jamie pouted. Hannah rolled her eyes and moved on.

"Anyway," she said, "we've got to keep working at it if we want to be experts. Do you think Warbus Flechbert gave up just because he got frustrated?"

"If you wouldn't mind telling us, Hannah dear," Regan interjected in a very Trelawney-esque voice, "who _was_ good ol' Warbus?"

"I read up on him in our DADA textbook, actually," Hannah admitted, meriting several shocked expressions from the others; to these, she stuck her tongue out and went on without a word. "Warbus Flechbert was an early eighteenth century Auror, born Oruwazbus Grindelwald."

"An ancestor of Grindelwald? But he seems like such a merry chap!" Regan's voice was thick with the tone a middle-aged gossip might use when deeply enthralled by some new juicy secret or another.

"In case you haven't noticed, Reegs, you're living proof that the apple really can fall _miles_ from the tree," Hannah said pointedly. "Besides, Oruwazbus – it's a mouthful, isn't it? - ditched his birth name when it started sprouting links to dark magic and the like. He picked up 'Warbus' and 'Flechbert' from a Hippogriff farm in Scotland around the time he started writing books. Turns out some of his earlier published stuff covered some pretty touchy topics, if you know what I mean. As if that wasn't bad enough, he killed three Muggles 'by accident' during one of his experimental phases, and the Ministry wanted to send him to Azkaban, only he got away."

"Whoa, hold on," Lily cut in. "We're following the advice of a _murderer_?"

"It wasn't murder," Hannah corrected defensively. "It was an accident – didn't you hear me the first time?"

"And she's on his side, too," Jamie murmured into Lily's ear. "Scary, isn't it?"

Hannah folded her arms and went on. "Call him what you will, but you can't argue with the fact that he's renowned as one of the most influential figures of all time when it comes to the development of the Animagus theory."

Regan regarded her with wide eyes. "McGonagall hasn't been hypnotising you again, has she?"

"Regan," Hannah practically growled, "do you want me to get on with the story or not?"

Regan simply shrugged.

"Anyway, being on the run was hard on Flechbert. He was – if my sources have it right – considerably overweight, and had a few close calls with dementors in his first few years as an escapee. What you have to understand is that the Animagus concept didn't even _exist _before Flechbert. He made the... er... 'discovery' quite by accident."

"Was _everything _an accident with this guy?" Regan interrupted. She put on a deep voice and mimicked, "_'Oh, whoops, I killed some people. Better lay low for a while. Oh deary me, now I'm an animal. How did that happen? Maybe I'll _accidentally_ write a book about it_._'_ Seriously. I'm guessing his death was an accident too?"

Hannah bit her lip in all seriousness. "Yes," she admitted sheepishly. Regan's eyes lit up in astonishment, but Hannah stopped her from getting too excited. "But we'll get to that later. Please, Regan, just let me finish. You're the one who asked about Flechbert in the first place."

"Yes, Professor. I'll raise my hand next time."

"Shut up or I'll expel you."

Although the pair was clearly joking, Regan let out a little cough and didn't say another word. At long last she seemed to have found the courtesy to let her friend go on without interruption.

"_Anyway_, Warbus got so tired of running that he considered turning himself in to the dementors, but quite frankly he was afraid of being caught. So he kept at it, running and hiding, like all good heroes do, begging for a way to disappear without exerting another drop of sweat. One day he thought to himself – and bear with me, 'cause I'm not quite clear on this part – 'Wouldn't it be great if I could turn into something small and nondescript, something that could waltz right up under the dementors' noses without-"

"But dementors don't have-"

"REGAN!" Jamie and Lily both exclaimed in exasperation.

"Thank you," said Hannah. "As I was saying, he thought it would be great to transform into something entirely different, so that even if the dementors did catch up with him, he could never be recognised. That was the stem of his idea, which was more like a ludicrous fantasy than anything. Flechbert was driven to insanity by the desire to get away unscathed, and every day he begged and begged to no end, hoping to make his wish come true. He would hide in an empty dumpster somewhere and close his eyes, imagining life as a tiny animal, happy and free. It became more of a trance he would slip into, and soon enough he was spending the majority of his conscious hours in his imagination. And then suddenly, one day, he opened his eyes and the fantasy didn't go away. He managed to remain in animal form. It took him a while to reverse the transformation, but when he finally did, he made plans to run away. Then, in his Animagus form, he fled across the sea to northern Mexico, where he investigated his discovery extensively, experimenting with different things, and, with the help of some locals, put together this book. He continued to travel after that, and was never seen or heard of again."

No one spoke for a few seconds. Then Regan, finally given a gratuitous opportunity, asked a question. "That's all very interesting. And really, I'm being serious," she added when the others looked at her disbelievingly. But tell me one thing... If nobody ever tracked Flechbert down, then where did all this information come from?"

Lily had to hand it to Regan for that inquiry. She'd been temporarily fooled, but, now that she thought about it, the credibility of this material seemed somewhat questionable.

Much to everyone's surprise, Hannah deflected the question with a very simple answer. "He wrote another book, an autobiography: Flechbert – _Man or Savage Beast?_, while he was on the run. Dumbest thing to do, if you ask me. He gave away pretty much all his secrets and his plans for the future, handed it in to a Mexican bookbinder along with the Animagus Guide, said 'Toodle-oo, now' and took off."

The others couldn't do much more than shrug in acceptance. Hannah grinned, clearly interpreting their silence as a sign that she'd done her duty, and stood up.

"Alright, time to try again. This'll be the last time, I promise," she said, offering a hand each to Jamie and Lily, and sticking out her tongue at a scowling Regan.

Assembled once more, the Rogues closed their eyes and returned to their former relaxed positions. During the first minute or so a few deep inhalations could be heard, but the noise soon settled as the girls began to fall into concentration.

This time, it was easier to focus. Lily was able to lapse into a calm state of mind, thinking of nothing but her chosen Animagus form. _Long legs, sleek coat, beady eyes..._ Lily kept repeating to herself. She tried to feel her ears on the top of her head, imagine that, instead of two feet, she had four delicate hooves. She was to the point of trying to make her arms disappear when she heard a shriek, opened her eyes, and lost any progress she might have been making.

She forgot all that in an instant, though, for what she saw made her clap a hand to her mouth in shock. Jamie, who stood next to her, had gone as white as a sheet. She stared at Lily with eyes twice their normal size, a look of sheer panic on her face. What drew Lily's gaze more than anything, however, was what Jamie now held up with one violently trembling hand – a velvety silver tail had sprouted from the girl's jeans.

"Jamie, is that...?" Lily struggled to form a complete sentence as she blinked in astonishment at her friend's brand new, completely out-of-place appendage.

Jamie gulped. "I... I... I was just trying to imagine it and..." She began to breathe in quick bursts, beginning to panic. "Help me, Lily! I don't know... how to make it... go away!"

Lily stepped closer, putting a steadying hand on Jamie's shoulder. "Okay, calm down. You just need to concentrate on changing back."

"But I can't, Lily! I can't!"

As was almost always the case, the words "calm down" had no effect whatsoever on Jamie's composure. She had a tendency to overreact in situations like this – and, Lily realised, there had been many instances of this severity throughout their school lives – always freaking out and never stopping to think about possible solutions.

Jamie put a hand to her head as her breathing became something close to hyperventilation, and she stumbled backwards. Lily grabbed her arm and tried to bring her back to her senses. "Breathe, Jamie. Come on. You'll never get rid of it if you can't concentrate! Just ask Hannah. Han?"

There was no answer. It was then that something finally dawned on Lily – neither Regan nor Hannah had made any move to help. In fact, they hadn't said a single word. And, as Lily's eyes darted around the room, she realised that they weren't even _there_.

"Hannah? Regan?" she called, letting go of a shaking Jamie's arm and turning in a full circle in search of the others. The room was empty. "Okay, that's creepy. Where the hell did they go? HANNAH! I need your help here!"

The response was distant and slightly strangled, but – to Lily's relief – a response all the same. "M'afraid that's not possible right now."

Lily froze, puzzled. She was certain she had heard correctly, but surely Hannah's voice hadn't come from the...

"Up here, Lils." There it was again, and this time, Lily concluded, it was _definitely_ coming from overhead. She looked up in alarm, gasping at what she saw there.

Regan hovered in an outstretched position high above the ground, a streak of black robes against the enchanted, non-existent ceiling. She moved a little from side to side as she tried to control her movement with one arm. With the other, she clung fast to Hannah, whose eyes were wide with fear and – Lily almost couldn't believe it – unconcealed thrill.

"How in _Merlin's_ name did you get up there?" Lily stuttered, forgetting the squealing Jamie at her side.

"I'm flying," said Regan dryly, giving Lily a tight-lipped, that's-the-way-it-is sort of smile.

"You're _what?_"

"Flying," she repeated with no more colour to her tone, as she adjusted her grip on Hannah's arm in a near daredevil-worthy stunt.

"Flying? Oh yes, and that's a perfectly normal occurrence when _you don't have a bloody broom!_"

"Oh Lily," Hannah sighed, "think about it. She's trying to become a maccaw, right? She obviously performed a partial transformation, like... Jamie there... and, uh, speaking of Jamie, is she alright?"

Lily turned quickly back to Jamie, who was staring straight ahead, a greenish palour to her face as she unconsciously stroked the fur on her new tail. "I can't get rid of it," she whimpered, not making eye contact with anybody.

"It's okay," Lily soothed, rubbing her friend's arm. "Just go over to that corner, close your eyes, and try to think about life _without _a tail. That shouldn't be too hard, right? Unless you have something to tell us..."

The joke was clearly lost on Jamie as she nodded and shuffled away in a daze, leaving Lily to turn her attention back to a slightly more life-threatening – well, almost – matter. "That doesn't explain how _you _got up there, Han. I thought your Animagus was going to be a tiger."

"I tried to help her down when she started lifting off, okay? Stupid Regan didn't let go of my hand and now I'm kind of stuck."

"Hey!" Regan protested, reminding her, "I _can_ let go of you."

"Alright, _clever_ Regan didn't let go of my hand, then. It's all thanks to her astounding wits that we ended up where we are. Thank Merlin for Regan's brain. If she were dumb, we might be... oh, perhaps _on the ground_? Wouldn't want that, now, would we?"

"Oh dear, my hand's slipping..."

"How can you two joke around in a situation like this?" Lily demanded, breaking in before they went too far and Regan _really _managed to drop Hannah amidst all their squabbling. They were considerably far from the ground – high enough that, should these two daredevils fall, there would undoubtedly be multiple broken bones.

"Stop bloody interrogating us and help us down," Regan fired back at her.

Lily reached for her wand. "Fine, I'll give you a little cushioning charm, but-"

The unmistakable sound of a door opening hit Lily's ears, and her blood froze right there and then. Hannah's eyes became very serious, and even Regan dropped her sardonic smirk. In the far corner, Jamie whipped around and her hand tightened around the furry tail in a death grip.

"Tell me that's not...," Hannah hissed, and those were the only words that could be uttered before the door opened fully.

**HG-P-HA-H-HG-P-HA-H-HG-P-HA-H-HG-P-HA-H-HG-P-HA-H-HG-P-HA-H-HG-P-HA-H-HG-P-HA-HHG-P-HA-HHG-P-HA-HHG-P-HA-HHG-P-HA-HHG-P-HA-HHG-P-HA-HHG-P-HA-H**

**(A/N: You get to guess what the letters stand for this time! I'll give you a hint, though – think of the Rogues in Lily-Jamie-Hannah-Regan order. And maybe look back on Chapter Three, if it's really that difficult.)**

After setting out from the Gryffindor common room, the Marauders had made their way along the familiar path to the Room of Requirement, traversing corridors and slipping through shortcuts that had long since been engraved into all of their memories – well, except perhaps Peter, who, despite having taken the class since third year, still got lost on the way to Divination.

Sirius continued to badger his friends, never ceasing to ask "what the bloody hell" they were going to "that room" for, making so much noise that James was tempted to cast a silencing charm on him. By the time they reached the fifth passageway and Sirius was still going on about his unfinished essay – a futile excuse if there ever was one – James exchanged a look with Remus, who shook his head as if to say "he'll never change." James had to agree with that one.

When they had reached the seventh floor, from among Sirius's obnoxious moans and groans emerged a question that nearly stopped James in his tracks. "So what _is_ going on with you and Evans, dear old Prongsie?" he asked innocently, immediately after expressing his need for the toilet.

James tried to put on a convincingly nonchalant voice. "Going on?"

"Cut the crap, mate. For six years you were totally infatuated with her, and now that we have evidence that she might like you back, you've suddenly gone all serious. That's not right, man. Being Sirius is _my _job."

"Oh, ha ha. Very funny. Really, nothing is going on." The four of them had rounded the final corner and could see the tapestry landmark up ahead, but James had momentarily forgotten their mission. He began to slow as he considered what Sirius had said. Sure, he'd been pretty crazy about Lily ever since first year – although, according to a select few others, "pretty crazy" was the understatement of the millennium. He'd done a lot of embarrassing things in attempt to win her over, some of which he would rather forget about, but those same select few people made sure to keep reminding him from time to time. But despite the teasing and nagging and incessant bothering, he really did have... well, a _crush_, was really the only way to put it, on Lily Evans. He'd evolved past saying he was in love, not because he could convince himself otherwise, but because it tended to sound incredibly creepy.

But right now, Sirius was right. He should have been over the moon at the thought that she might possibly return his feelings, but their relationship had recently become very strange. One minute they were arguing, the next they were getting on like lifelong friends, not six-going-on-seven-year rivals. Just the other day they'd had a brief spell of civility, and now she and the other Rogues were back to their usual trickster selves, blackmailing the Marauders in the worst way possible. True, they didn't have any idea what they were really dealing with, but James couldn't help but be angry. It was a defensive instinct, he supposed, to be so determined to protect his friend's secret.

On the other hand, James knew he couldn't stay mad at Lily for long. No matter what reason she gave him to hold a grudge, there was just something about being around her that made him forget everything else. It didn't matter that she sided with the "enemy". She may have fought with him since first year, but James had never, not for one second, fallen out of love with her.

"PRONGS! Daydreaming about Evans again, are we? Tell her I said hi, and that you have to get your sorry butt back to reality."

James snapped out of his thoughts, looking around him and realising that he had come to a complete standstill several metres from the tapestry. Sirius was waving a hand in front of his face, wearing a teasing grin, while Remus looked at him thoughtfully. Peter was distractedly picking out earwax.

"Shut it, Sirius," James said, not in the mood for his friend's joking while in this confused state of mind. "Who wants to get us into the room?"

"I'll do it," Sirius offered. "If you try, it'll be filled with a thousand clones of Evans."

James took a joking swing at his head, but Sirius dodged, laughing. Remus stepped in, shaking his head and smirking. "And Padfoot'll grant us access to a giant toilet, the way he's been complaining. I'll do it."

It took Remus several attempts to make the door appear, but eventually it was there, allowing them access into the room. Remus put one hand on the knob and turned. It didn't budge. His brow furrowed as he tried again, unsuccessful once more. "That's weird," he muttered. "Has it ever been stuck before?"

"Don't think so," James answered. In all the years the Marauders had used the room, they had always been granted entry without problem. Why should it lock them out now? "Alohomora," James tried, and although sparks flew out of the keyhole the door remained firmly shut, and the knob would not turn.

"Allow me," Sirius said, stepping forward with an eager expression on his face that made James wary.

"What are you doing, Padfoot?" he asked suspiciously as Sirius rolled up the sleeve on his wand arm.

"Beating you and Moony at Charms," he said with a shrug.

"You're not using the exploding spell again, are you? 'Cause with your skill level, you might do permanent damage to the room."

Sirius raised an eyebrow testily at James. "Do you have any better ideas, Prongsie?"

James sighed. "Well, go ahead, but for the record, I had nothing to do with this."

Just as he began to turn away to consult Remus about a more foolproof plan, there was a loud BANG from where Sirius stood before the doorknob flew off and hit Barnabas's tapestry. James watched with wide eyes as the door inched slowly open, then gradually swung further on its hinges. The Marauders approached the doorway, waving smoke out of their faces. When the remnants of the explosion cleared, a very unexpected sight met their eyes.

"What the hell?" Sirius shouted.

Peter screamed.

Instead of whatever meeting place Remus had tried to conjure for them, the door gave way to an enormous, invisible-ceilinged space that, at first glance, looked something like a training arena, though training for _what_, it was impossible to tell. Then James caught a glimpse of some armchairs in one corner, and became confused by the vast array of different terrains that spread across the ground. What really made his jaw drop, though, was seeing Lily Evans standing panic-stricken in the middle of the room, wide eyes locked on his.

"Wow, Evans really did appear," Sirius commented, but James knew it wasn't that simple, and Sirius probably did as well. Something strange had happened with the Room of Requirement. And this was clearly the _real_ Lily, not just some illusion created by the room. He could tell by the way the blood had left her face at the sight of them, the way it always did when the Rogues were caught unawares.

"What are you doing here?" shrieked the Lily that was, unbelievable though it seemed, right there in front of their eyes.

"What are _you_ doing here? How did this-"

But before he could finish his sentence, Sirius took a step around him into the room, and things got even stranger. There was a violent gust of wind, and all four of the Marauders were knocked off their feet and sucked into the room. The lush grass and red mats and blue sky disappeared, and instead their surroundings became a void of unintelligible colour and space as they struggled in the apparent tornado that had picked them up.

"HELP!" James heard a female voice scream as somebody shot past him in the raging wind. A body crashed forcefully into him, but they were instantly whisked off again, although James could still hear squeals of terror around him in various tones. The wind carried him around in rapid circles until he became dizzy and disoriented. Then, with a painful blow to the shoulder, James was thrown into something that felt very much like a door frame. Without thinking twice, he hooked his arm around the outside and hung on for dear life. As he tried to pull himself through, something – or rather, somebody – was catapulted at his chest, knocking the wind out of him. James managed to grab hold of their cool wrist, and then, as he yanked with all his might on the door frame, the two of them fell out of the cyclone and onto the ground outside the door.

For a moment or two he just laid there, stunned, unable to comprehend what had just happened or why. Then he picked up on the fact that the floor wasn't quite as flat as he remembered, and jumped up as he realised he had fallen on top of the mystery figure he'd pulled out of the room with him. "Sorry," he muttered as he rose, but was not quite prepared to find out who he was apologising to. But of _course_ it would be Lily who came crashing into him, and who in return he had nearly crushed. ("Crushed _on_," he knew Sirius would have corrected. "And not 'nearly' – no, not at all. You're head over heals, mate." It was almost frightening how clear Sirius's teasing voice could be inside his head sometimes.) The redhead lay sprawled on the marble floor, grimacing in pain and holding a palm to her forehead.

"Oh crap, Lily, I'm sorry," he exclaimed, as his left hand shot instinctively to the mess of black hair atop his head. "I didn't shatter your skull with my elbow or something, did I?"

"No," she mumbled, waving it off. "Just smashed my head on the doorway." She looked up, frowning thoughtfully. "You pretty near yanked my ankle out of its socket, though. But I suppose it's just as well. Er... thanks. For pulling me out."

James shrugged awkwardly. "No problem." His forehead creased in thought as he registered her words. "That was your ankle?"

"Why yes, James. What part of me were you hoping to have grabbed?" She jibed, while James marveled at the fact that, several months ago, that "James" would have been a disgusted "_Potter_", and her tone would have been far more acidic.

"Er, you have skinny ankles," he said in an effort to clear things up, but regretted it immediately. "No, sorry. I was confused. Never mind that."

She laughed lightly, rubbed her forehead once more, and dropped her gaze to the ground. Much of the tension and nervousness disintegrated when she looked away, but a part of him, perhaps his subconscious, wished their eyes would meet again, if only for that rush of happiness it always gave him.

Feeling like an idiot, James stuck out one of his hands, the other shoved firmly into his pocket. "Here, let me help you up." Oh, Merlin. Could he sound more cliché?

Lily took it gingerly and he pulled her gently to her feet. He noticed that her eyes traveled upward, but not quite far enough to make contact with his. As she slipped her hand out of his grasp, now stable on her feet, James experienced a strange tingling sensation, as if his hand were begging hers not to let go.

Lily cleared her throat and stepped away, still looking at the floor. "It's strange," she began. "I didn't think anybody else knew about the Room of Requirement. If we'd thought you guys might be using it, we'd probably have abandoned it years ago."

"Or fought for it," James said with a grin, which Lily returned. "Either way. But it was the same with us – we thought we were the only ones who had the whole school scoped out. Now that one of our hideouts has been discovered we'll have to be careful. Next thing we know, Bertha Jorkins will be discovering all our secrets."

"Hey! Are you comparing our intelligence to Bertha Jorkins'? That twit can't tell a cauldron from an ink pot."

"Oh, I don't know... I get confused sometimes too."

A large mass of robes, hair and limbs flew out of the windy doorway just then. It was catapulted straight into the wall on the opposite side of the corridor, where it fell into a heap underneath the abused tapestry.

"Get your hands off of me, Wormbag!" growled the mass. A pair of arms flung up and pushed a considerable-sized heap of robes away from them. Regan stood up and put her hands on her hips; Peter looked confounded where he lay in a pile on the floor. It took him a few seconds to realise what had happened, at which point he stood up and turned to Regan.

"I-I'm sorry, R-Regan, I-"

"Save it, Pettigrew. Next time you want to rescue me from a rampaging whirlwind, grab my _arm_, okay?"

Peter nodded quickly, looking very pathetic indeed.

Regan turned her attention to James and Lily. "Now, does anybody want to tell me what the bloody hell happened in there?"

Lily looked from Regan to James and back again, apparently at a loss for words. James decided to go ahead and offer what he had to say, fully aware that the least accepting of the Rogues would probably just throw it back in his face with the usual "Not talking to you, _Marauder_" comment.

"Well, I'm not sure. We tried to get into the room, but the door was locked or something... and then Padfoot used an explosion charm on it and we... well, we saw you. And then that weird wind thing started."

Lily and Regan exchanged a far-from-subtle, alarmed glance. "Saw us?" Regan questioned slowly.

"Well, we only saw Lily, really. But we figured the rest of you were in there."

That seemed to relieve them of most of their panic, for Regan's face relaxed noticeably. Then she became stern again. "What were you doing here in the first place?" she demanded, folding her arms.

James regarded her skeptically. "We could ask you the same thing."

Regan looked at Lily again, and then back at James. "Point taken," she said with a curt nod. "But there's something weird about this."

"Regan, it's just a coincidence," Lily put in, before whispering something – again, not so subtly – into her friend's ear. James thought he heard a few words along the lines of "couldn't have known...", but otherwise their silent exchange remained a secret.

"Okay, well, just assuming that the Marauders are in the clear..." Regan narrowed her eyes and James, glared ferociously at Peter, and resumed her sentence. "... I suppose the only question left is how we're going to get the rest of those fools out of there." She inclined her head toward the carnage inside the room.

"Right," said Lily, cautiously stepping a little closer to the door. "I've always wanted to try this – dunno if it'll work... let's see... Accio Jamie!" With a violent whoosh of wind, a figure easily distinguished by its long golden tresses came flying out of the doorway. Lily caught one of Jamie's shoulders and James caught the other, and together they helped the girl steady herself.

Jamie was as pale as the Grey Lady. "Thanks," she said simply and quietly. For a second Lily looked horrified, as if she'd just remembered something terrible, but with a quick glance behind Jamie her expression settled into a small, knowing smile.

"So the summoning charm works, then," she concluded, looking into the room again. "We'd better get the others out."

Peter, keen to help, shuffled forward and pointed his wand through the doorway. "Accio Remus!" he said loudly – and, well, not so clearly. His words were mumbled and his wand arm slack, and before anybody could stop him, he went soaring back into the room, caught up in the wind once again.

"My hero," muttered Regan sarcastically, shaking her head. "Dibs on not getting him back out."

In the end it was Lily who retrieved both Remus and Peter – in fact, Lily was the only one (aside from Remus, who successfully rescued Sirius while Lily was summoning Hannah) whose skill level in Charms was adequate for this particular task. That was understandable, though – the wind was frightfully strong, and anybody of average weight or heavier, James thought, would prove quite difficult to summon using a wand unless the holder was highly practiced. The heaviest thing they'd worked on in class was the stack of books that served as Flitwick's stool. To tell the truth, they weren't _supposed _to be practising on it, but back in sixth year Sirius and James had been having a game of "Topple Flitwick", in which the latter had successfully slipped the books out from underneath the teacher's feet using a summoning charm. Flitwick never found out who the culprit was, but the next time they were asked to demonstrate the charm in class, James received a "Very well done, Mister Potter," which was nearing Remus's "Splendid, as always," and just that much closer to Lily's "You never cease to amaze me, young lady."

Finally, the eight of them were safely in the hallway, and Hannah forced the door to the room of requirement shut. There was still a large black hole where the knob had been before Sirius tampered with it, which meant, unfortunately, that they would probably have to talk to Professor Dumbledore if they hoped to make future use of the room (or to save themselves from being convicted without having first admitted to the crime).

"Well, that was interesting," Sirius said, getting the ball rolling.

"_Very_," said Hannah coolly.

"Look, I've got a... proposal," Jamie said nervously, and the others looked to her for further information. "I take it everyone is probably a bit... well, confused. So I think we should agree on something. We" – she gestured at herself and the other Rogues – "won't ask questions as to what you" – she looked at the boys – "were doing, so long as you return the favour."

The Rogues and half of the Marauders nodded. Sirius interrupted the agreement to say loudly, "Hold it. I've got a problem with that. See, I don't even _know_ what we were doing here. So technically I have a right to ask questions, since I don't have any secrets to share." He raised his eyebrows and smirked. "So you'd better spill, Roguies."

The Rogues all looked like they were ready to protest – some of them quite heatedly – but it was Remus who contradicted Sirius. "No," he said, glancing briefly at James, who understood what he was thinking. "It's a team sport, Padfoot. We can't give them a specific answer, so we can't ask for one either. It's only fair."

"Thank you," said Hannah with a grateful smile at Remus – he returned one briefly, James noticed, but then his eyes turned to Jamie, whom he regarded with a very odd look in his eyes. Hannah, on the other hand, turned to Sirius and harrassed him with pure venom in her words. "At least _somebody_ isn't trying to cheat the agreement."

Sirius just made a face at her, to which she responded with a firm stomp on his foot.

Sirius made to return the favour, but Hannah jumped nimbly out of the way and went to stand by Regan (who, in a feeble attempt to escape the ever-looming Peter, had migrated to the outside of the mob). Sirius looked vaguely irritated, but said nothing and simply stood there, an expression on his face that indicated great self-restraint. James wondered if Padfoot was finally beginning to see the futility of his scuffles with Hannah.

"I hope you haven't forgotten about our little meeting tonight," a triumphant Hannah reminded almost menacingly. Evidently, she quite enjoyed having the upper hand. Noting the slightly frightened look on Peter's face and the wary looks the other three Marauders shared, she queried, "You aren't going to chicken out, are you? 'Cause if you are, a little _something_ might happen to slip..."

It was James's turn to exercise self-restraint as he stopped his fists from clenching in rage. He hated that the Rogues could be so casual about something like this - they treated it like it was just another little game, like it was a part of the Marauder-Rogue war - which, in principle, ran on a sort of unspoken treaty that involved no rules or limitations. This situation was different. Should this information (concerning the Marauders being outdoors afterhours on the night of the full moon) fall into the wrong hands (and, with the decision left to the Rogues, it most certainly would do just that), Remus's secret could get out. And if his lycanthropy became known, well... he'd be facing unthinkable scrutiny - from the teachers who didn't know, from the Slytherins, and, almost the most frightening possibility, the Rogues themselves.

"What are you glaring at, Pothead?" Regan demanded with a smirk. "I suppose you think we're just the _evilest _little witches on the planet? Oh, come on. It's just a little late-night rendezvous."

James cleared his head and tried to appear untroubled. "Evil? No. Evil takes a certain degree of intelligence... and you don't appear to meet that mark. So 'sneaky schoolgirls' will have to do." He shoved his hands into his pockets and gave a little apologetic shrug.

"Oh, clever." That was Lily, who was grinning playfully, her words not tainted by the same spite as, say, Hannah's seemed to be this evening. She gestured at herself and Jamie. "And you realise you're talking to the two girls who absolutely _pummel_ you in Charms and Potions?"

Peter jumped in, eager to put in his two sickles' worth. "Do you realise you're talking to the creators of the Marauders' M-"

Sirius slapped a hand against the boy's mouth. James and Remus exchanged glances that simultaneously said "close call" and "man, that boy's getting stupider by the day".

"The what?" Regan asked, amused. "Didn't catch that, Pettigrew."

But Sirius wouldn't return Peter's power of speech quite so easily. Keeping his hand clamped over the struggling boy's mouth, Sirius turned to the Rogues and feigned innocence with an entirely unconvincing smile. "The Marauders'... er, Muffins," he said, and James wanted to slap him.

Hannah raised an eyebrow, intrigued by their attempted - and one hundred percent failed - cover. "The Marauders' Muffins, eh? And what's that... a top secret, mind-blowing, revolutionary _recipe_? I gotta say, that must have taken some real brains. You've outwitted us, boys."

Sirius finally relinquished his hold on Peter, who looked a little confused and stumbled backward. "Yeah...," the boy said, filling the awkward silence. "They're delicious!" He grinned idiotically and looked to the others for praise on his appallingly untactful line. Remus just shook his head; Peter lowered his.

Regan rolled her eyes. "Riiiiiiiight... Well, if we're done here - which we are, by the way, 'cause I can't stand your pathetic acting a moment longer - let's set this straight. It's almost eight now, and I think it'll be stupid if we all take a merry stroll down to the Black Lake together. Ruins the effect, if you know what I mean. So..." She exchanged a quick, whispered conference with Hannah, who was smirking.

Hannah delivered the final verdict. "Okay. You've got an extra twenty minutes. Do whatever it is you need to do to... get ready, and then meet us down at the lake. Capiche?"

Sirius expelled a harsh laugh. "You actually think we're going to play along with your stupid game, don't you?"

Hannah raised her eyebrows. She looked at the other Rogues, who nodded, and they all began to gather their things. "I don't think you've got a choice, Black," Hannah said triumphantly, bumping her shoulder against Sirius's arm as she stalked past. She was barely gentle about it. Regan stuck her tongue out at the Marauders, Jamie ducked her head, and Lily offered a sympathetic smile on her way past. James returned it only halfheartedly, unable to forget the metaphoric barrel of flobberworms the Rogues were dangling over their heads.

James watched the Rogues disappear around the corner, and, when he could hear their giggled conversation begin to fade as they traipsed down the stairs, he turned back to consult with the Marauders. When he went to speak, though, he couldn't decide what to say.

"Is anybody here as confused as I am?" Sirius said loudly, indicating complete obliviousness in his expression. Peter stuck up his hand, but Sirius just shook his head, waving off the matter. "Okay, so does anybody want to tell me what just happened?"

James exchanged a quick glance with Remus before responding. "Er, that's for later, mate. We should probably get going."

"Right. 'Cause we have to do everything the Rogues tell us to do."

James looked at Remus again. Why was Sirius being so stubborn about this? It wasn't as if they had a choice. The Rogues had dangerous information, had decided to use it in a blackmail capacity, and would stop at nothing to drag this out for as long as was humanly possible.

"Padfoot do you even know what you're talking about?" he asked tentatively. Sirius _had_ been a little out of it this morning.

"Of course. Those pompous idiots are luring us down to the Black Lake so they can hang us upside down on the Whomping Willow in our knickers and leave us till morning, and you two are going to walk right into their trap."

"Sirius, mate, how much of this morning do you remember?"

Sirius blinked, looking confused. "Not much."

"That would explain it," James said with a tiny smirk that quickly turned back into the frown that had creased his face all day. "C'mon, let's get going. We'll fill you in on the way."

**MM-MM-MM-MM-MM-MM-MM-MM-MM-MM-MM-MM-MM-MM-MM-MM-MM-MM-MM-MM-MM-MM-MM-MM-MM-MM-MM-MM-MM-MM-MM-MM-MM-MM-MM-MM-MM-MM-MM-MM-MM-MM-MM**

**(A/N: This one's easy to guess if you've read even semi-thoroughly through the chapter thus far.)**

"Password?"

"Turpis pinguis," Regan replied cheerily. "And a good day to you, Miss Fat Lady," she added with a wave over her shoulder. Lily wasn't sure why, but ever since their unexpected encounter with the Marauders, Regan had been in a superb mood. She'd sung and danced halfway here from the Room of Requirement, which, in all truth, was not something that could normally be expected of the Queen of Pessimism.

As the Fat Lady swung shut, muttering all the while about adolescents and mood swings, Lily and the others mounted the stairs without a word. As soon as they were safely upstairs, Regan burst out euphorically.

"Oh, this is gonna be so great!" she exclaimed, throwing her arms up in the air. "We have total control over tonight. We can make them do _anything_ and they'll never be able to object. Ooo, can I make Pettigrew eat dirt? Yesyesyes, this is gonna be _so_ much fun!" She launched herself backward onto the nearest bed, crashed into a startled Rosalie, tumbled off and hurriedly picked herself up again. "Sorry, Rosie. Didn't see you there," she said quickly, and then beamed. "Isn't today just the greatest day ever?"

Rosalie blinked and raised an eyebrow, turning to look at Lily and the others. "Did somebody drug her pumpkin juice?"

Lily shook her head with a smile just as Regan exclaimed, "No! And speaking of which, did we miss dinner?"

Rosalie gave a tiny, amused smile. "Well I didn't see you there, so I'd say so. That's got to be a first – Regan Tain skipping a meal..." She shook her head in disbelief.

"Glad to know you think so fondly of me, Rosie," Regan said brightly. She pinched a disgruntled Rosalie on the cheek and waltzed off toward her own bed.

"Sorry about her, Rose," Lily apologised. "I don't know what's put her in such a weird mood..."

Rosalie rolled her eyes. "Might it be your latest antics with the Marauders?"

Lily chuckled. "It could be."

"I'm kind of trying to study for DADA, so do you think you could tell her to keep it down?" Rosalie gestured at Regan, who had discarded a Quidditch magazine and was now hanging upside-down off the edge of her mattress, humming some sort of waltz tune at the top of her voice.

"Regan, shut up!" Hannah yelled, but Regan just laughed. Hannah shrugged. "I tried."

The Rogues left Rosalie to her study and went to join Regan on the other side of the dormitory. The brunette dragged herself back into an upright position. "Whoa, head rush!" she said with a giggle. The other girls sat down around her, shaking their heads in incredulity.

"What is with you today, Reegs?" Hannah asked. "You're so... not yourself."

Regan scoffed, sounding at least a little bit like her normal, sardonic self. "Like you can talk, Milsie."

Hannah gave her an odd look that seemed to say "I don't know what you're talking about", but it was pointless trying to deny that she had been acting strange as of late. Dodging the topic, she just rolled her eyes. "Seriously, you should take a downer. This is very serious business tonight."

Regan's brow creased in confusion. "Why? What have you actually got planned?"

Hannah's face eyes adopted a mischievous glint. "Oh, nothing in particular... just a little strip poker. And then I thought we could take them on at a game of Truth or Dare. Only without the "truth" this time. It's about time we smash them into the ground where they belong."

Regan jumped backward a little. "Whoa. No way am I playing strip poker. _Especially_ not with the Marauders! I don't want to see Pettigrew's... his... ARGH!" She grabbed a pillow and smashed it into her face, collapsing forward. "BAD MENTAL IMAGE! SCARRED FOR LIFE!"

Jamie regarded Hannah doubtfully. "Not to say she isn't being a total baby, Han, but I'm not sure if strip poker is such a good idea. It's a little..." She blushed a deep red as she trailed off into silence.

"Relax, scaredy cats," Hannah said with a laugh. "Not _total_ strip poker. That would just be _wrong_. I figured we could be properly prepared... dressed, you know. Many layers and all that. The Marauders won't have the same advantage." She winked conspiratorially. "So what do you all think?"

Regan made a disgusted noise in the back of her throat, Jamie looked down at her hands, and Lily shrugged hesitantly. "I dunno, Han. It seems a bit... risky to me. You know the Marauders – they come up with a way to turn everything against us. We could end up dancing the "La Cucaracha" naked in front of Hagrid's hut or something."

Even Jamie couldn't help but let out a giggle, but Hannah folded her arms and looked the others over suspiciously. "You're all just scared," was her assessment. "Come on! We'll have no trouble beating the Marauders at this. If it makes you feel better, I'll bewitch the cards in our favour. They'll never know a thing. With Lily's help, of course."

Lily raised an eyebrow. "Not that I condone cheating, but... if it'll spare us _serious_ embarrassment..."

"So we're on, then?" Hannah's voice was filled with excitement.

"I suppose." Lily shrugged.

"As long as you're bewitching the cards," Jamie said sternly.

Hannah turned to Regan, whose eyes were as wide as McGonagall's had become when Sirius had lit her hat on fire. Regan shook her head slowly and definitely. "Nuh uh. You can't make me. I won't do it. _Ever_."

**BLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBL**

Some ten minutes later, the Rogues were on their way down the dormitory staircase, ready to sneak out of the school for their out-of-hours meeting.

"I can't believe you're making me do this," Regan said through gritted teeth. She was bundled up in a t-shirt and shorts under khaki pants and multiple sweaters, topped off with a whopping seven layers of robes. Under a mountain of fabric, all various levels of itchy and misfitted, Regan was completely disgruntled. Needless to say, her good mood had gone whooshing down the drain some time ago.

Jamie checked that the coast was clear (no Marauders – they suspected they were still in the boys' dormitory, contemplating the meaning of "get ready") and the girls hurried down the stairs. Just as they were approaching the portrait hole, a voice called out, making them all jump.

"There you are."

The four of them pivoted in alarm, only to see Frank Longbottom standing up from his seat on one of the couches by the roaring fire. He eyed them warily (particular Regan's angry, swollen form) before letting his eyes settle on Jamie. The girl blinked in astonishment.

"Hey, Jamie, I was just wondering if I could talk to you for a minute," he said politely, his eyes shifting with every few words from Jamie's face to the ground. He shuffled his feet uncomfortably. "In private, if that's alright?"

His voice, sad and hopeful, made Lily's heart ache even though it was no business of hers. She ushered Hannah and Regan straight out the door, whispering to Jamie on the way by, "_Tell him the truth. Now's your chance,_" waving to Frank with a polite "Night, Frank," and letting the Fat Lady's portrait fall closed behind her.

"I feel sorry for Jamie," Regan said a moment later. "That conversation's gonna be hell for her."

"Are you kidding?" was Hannah's response. "I feel sorry for Frank. He actually thought he had a chance with her."

"Be quiet, both of you," Lily scolded, but she couldn't hide the worry on her own face. "Jamie will handle this as she sees fit." She bit her lip. "I just hope she doesn't let him down too hard."

**TMATRTMATRTMATRTMATRTMATRTMATRTMATRTMATRTMATRTMATRTMATRTMATRTMATRTMATRTMATRTMATRTMATRTMATRTMATRTMATRTMATRTMATRTMATRTMATRTMATRTMATR**

Jamie couldn't seem to breathe. As soon as the portrait hole closed behind her friends, she felt like the whole room was closing in on her from all directions. She felt she would soon drown in the pressure – pressure to be honest, pressure not to hurt Frank's feelings, pressure not to say the wrong thing.

"Hey, so, we haven't talked much since our date last week," Frank said quietly, looking up. He appeared to be concerned. "Is that like... your way of telling me this isn't working, or have you... just been busy?"

Jamie swallowed hard, trying not to make eye contact as she formed her response. "No, that's not it," she started, and even she wondered what she meant by that. "I'm sorry, I've just..." Oh God, what was she going to say? "_I don't like you_," was too harsh. He might have seen it coming, but she would feel like such a monster delivering those words. And yet somehow, she couldn't bring herself to lie, to tell him it was all just a misunderstanding.

Then, completely out of the blue, Remus popped into her mind.

She wasn't sure why. But as she thought more about it, an answer began to formulate in her head.

She'd embarrassingly admitted to liking him. Did she really? She was still confused about that. Seeing him made her stomach do a double salto with a half twist, or something similarly crazy. Being near him made her face heat up, her hands shake and her words come out all disjointed and not at all how they sounded in her head. The trouble was, Jamie acted that way around most people. Maybe she was just socially awkward, full stop. Maybe she didn't feel that way about Remus after all. But then there was that little nagging fact: _Veritaserum never lies..._

She mentally slapped herself. This wasn't the time to be internally debating her feelings for Remus. This was the time to be debating her feelings for Frank. She sighed. She wasn't about to kid herself. She didn't like Frank in _that_ way. She liked...

A sudden spark ignited her brain with newfound determination. Why should she like Remus when he clearly didn't return the same feelings? She'd embarrassed herself; when he'd tried to confront her after that, he was probably going to let her down as easily as possible – tell her he liked her, but not like _that_. It was always the answer. And it would hurt, as always.

So why was she standing here, about to do the exact same thing to Frank?

And even if Remus _did_ return her feelings, what good was it now? When she'd tried to apologise for being so cold, he'd totally exploded at her, telling her it was "harder for him than it was for her". Well, if Remus was going to be like that, Jamie didn't owe him any sort of loyalty. If anything, Remus deserved to know just how much she didn't depend on him liking her back.

Frank cleared his throat uneasily, snapping Jamie back to reality. "Uh... Jamie? Is something wrong?"

At that moment she met his gaze, and a strange thing happened. She barely had time to reason with herself before her feet carried her forward. One quick stride took her within a foot of Frank, and with a second her lips were on his and her arms wrapped tightly around his neck. His face was frozen beneath hers to begin with, but soon he melted under her touch, responding softly but passionately to the kiss. Jamie half-expected chemistry, fireworks, and a sudden realisation that she really _did _feel that way about Frank – but there was nothing. She acted almost mechanically, and was admittedly a bit disappointed. Still, Jamie made sure he got the point before she stumbled backward out of the embrace, breathing heavily. She swallowed hard, trying to make sense of what had just happened and wondering what had possessed her to do such a thing.

Frank looked at her through wide, exhilarated eyes. "Um... wow. That w-was... that was amazing." His eyebrows knitted together in confusion. "Not that I'm c-c-complaining or anything, but you never really answered my question. Why haven't you spoken to me since our... our date?"

Jamie's throat was almost completely closed up with mixed emotions – fear, confusion, disappointment, and a tiny bit of thrill – but she managed to choke out a reply. "I... Frank, I thought you were mad at me. I mean, I ran out so quickly when the M... when they turned up and started ruining everything, and I just thought you... I thought you might have, you know, been ready to... break up with me. I was scared to talk to you, Frank. I just didn't know what to say."

Frank looked like he felt very sorry for her – which was ironic when he was the one getting the short end of the stick. But he didn't know that. He stepped forward and took her hand gently. "I'm sorry you had to feel that way, Jamie." He looked sincerely into her eyes, and she vowed to someday achieve the flexibility needed to kick herself in the head. "I wasn't mad at you. I was worried that you were the one who wasn't interested. I thought I did something wrong." He smiled shyly. "But if you want to, you know, go out again, I'd... I'd like that."

Jamie bit her lip and tried not to show what she was feeling. "Yeah, me too." She thought for a moment. "The next Hogsmeade trip isn't for about a month. But you know, the Quidditch season's starting soon. Maybe, just for now, we could go to the first game together?" That way, she wouldn't have the pressure of being in private with him.

Frank's smile widened. "Yeah, sure."

"Okay, cool. Um... I have to... be somewhere right now, so can I talk to you later?"

Still a bit dazed, Frank nodded. "Sure. I'll see you, Jamie," he said with a wave.

"Yeah. See you."

As soon as he couldn't see her face, Jamie stopped forcing a smile, and instantly her face fell into a somewhat horrified expression. She couldn't believe what she'd just done. She stepped out the portrait hole, ready to scream, but tried to pull herself together as she came face to face with her friends.

"So? How'd it go?" Regan wanted to know. "Did the sorry little wimp go off crying?"

"Regan," Hannah chided, "of course not. Jamie was nice about it – weren't you, Jay?"

Jamie began to formulate an answer in her head, but Lily stepped in before she had to voice it.

"Guys, stop badgering her. I'm sure she did the right thing." Lily put a comforting hand on her arm, obviously interpreting her panicked expression as a guilty one – a different sort of guilt than what Jamie was feeling. Lily linked her arm through hers and whispered, "It's all right. You had to tell him someday." Jamie could only nod meekly in response.

"If you two are done whispering, I'd like to get this over with," Regan complained, shifting uncomfortably under her many garments.

"Yeah," said Hannah with fierce anticipation. "Let's go kick some Marauder ass." And with that, the Rogues were off, inconspicuously through the corridors, out the gates, and down to the Black Lake for a late-night meeting their arch rivals.

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**Author's Notes:  
So there you have it - the longest chapter yet. 9,840 words, I believe.  
Frankly (no pun intended) I'm getting a little fed up with the Frank/Jamie obstacle that hasn't managed to resolve itself in the slightest over the past ten chapters, so I figured I'd get that storyline going. I know they're an annoying pairing, but there's a lot in store for those two. Just wait and see.  
And our dear Hannie, she's also got a lot of... drama... coming up, most of which, you'll be glad to know, has to do with good ol' Padfoot. I'll say no more.  
As for L/J, I'm not sure where those two are headed at the moment. But there are several big events coming up that should include some Lames (Jily?) action.  
Regan and Peter are a lost cause but they're fun to write about.  
I'm very sorry for not including the lake meeting in this chapter. Originally I was going to cram the whole strip poker/truth or dare thing in, but then I got carried away as usual. I can promise you the next chapter will be almost entirely dedicated to it, though (which means yet another chapter will take place on this same day - oh goody!).  
I'm actually getting back into this story (I know I keep saying that and not updating for months on end, but this time I really do mean it). A while back I came up with an idea for a semi-sequel (three chapters or so) to tie everything up after they leave Hogwarts, and I don't want to give anything away, but I'm pretty excited about it, which means I'll be more motivated to finish TMATR itself. No pressure or anything (PRESSURE PRESSURE PRESSURE) but I'd quite like it (be absolutely ECSTATIC) if you left a review (or twenty - you know, make multiple accounts just for the sake of reviewing many times. Just kidding. I don't ... that server-clogging behaviour, for the record).  
But seriously (TWO PUNS IN ONE AUTHOR'S NOTE!!), even if you hate this story and it makes you want to smash your head against a brick wall (please don't do that), say so in a review. There's nothing worse than your opinions going unheard. If you want something about this story to change, you'll have to let me know.  
Ah, who am I kidding with all this logical reasoning? I just love getting reviews. Make me happy, won't you? :)**

**Until next time,  
_~Sam (PrincessEarth) _**


	20. Midnight Mischief Managed

**Plot:** The Marauders and their female counterparts, the Rogues, have been sworn enemies since first year. Seventh year means the big finale of their timeless battle - but it also means newfound maturity. Could this bring something more for Lily and her friends?

**Disclaimer: **Harry Potter and all its characters and themes are the property of J.K. Rowling. The only characters I own are Jamie, Hannah, Regan and a few minors. Other than that it's purely fanfic.

**Chapter Notes: **Yeah, so... it took a little longer than I anticipated. But I think I'm getting better at updating, little by little. I actually made a massive sacrifice to get this chapter done tonight - I have an exam tomorrow and I should really be studying. But hey, it's an English exam. I think this counts as studying. Or at least some very off-topic practice. Anyway, here we have Chapter Twenty, and I don't know about you but I think that's a major milestone. I may be less than a month into the story timeline-wise, but I've set a new personal record where word count is concerned. Anyway, enjoy the celebratory chapter - complete with a couple of big-ish events/confessions/revelations and a tongue-twister title!

**QUICK NOTE: **I forgot to mention - a HUGE thank you goes to HorseandArtFreak for encouraging me to get this chapter going. We've been having a rather interesting conversation about a... er... particularly terrible series, and her messages really got me pumped to write this story. And another shout out for RainbowCrystal, who deserves an award for persistent nagging. Thanks a heap to everyone who's reviewed as well - I can't believe some of the amazing things you've said about this story. Without your reviews TMATR would be nothing. (I'm not implying, of course, that this story _is_ something. It's just better than it would be without your reviews. Um... yes. My point: you all rock!)

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**Chapter Twenty - Midnight Mischief Managed**

"Where _are_ those idiots?"

"They'd better hurry up, I'm freezing my butt off here!"

"Freezing? It's bloody _boiling_ out here."

"That's because you're wearing twice your weight in robes, Regan."

"Oh yeah? And whose fault is that?"

"Well, I don't remember dressing you by force, so..."

Lily rolled her eyes and turned away from her friends' tennis match of an argument with a shiver. Like Regan, she'd bundled up for the pending, er, events of the night – but in a more strategic manner, with smaller, thinner garments and easily-removed bits of jewelery here and there. It didn't create quite the same marshmallow effect as Regan's attire, but she hoped it would do the trick.

It was rapidly approaching half past eight, and still the Marauders hadn't showed. She wondered if they would come at all. Under any normal circumstances, they probably wouldn't (at least, not by any conventional means – they'd set booby traps for their return, lock the Rogues out of the school for the night, or, more conniving yet, sneak up in the dark and cast some sort of body-defacing hex on them all). But this time, they – James and Remus, at least – seemed hell-bent on protecting whatever secret it was they were trying to hide – the secret that the Rogues had gained near-access to. Lily came to the conclusion that they were probably just running late. The Marauders never were famous for their punctuality.

She glanced over at Jamie, who was sitting hunched on a rock by the lake, gazing thoughtfully across the dark water. She looked so upset, so torn, that Lily crossed the distance between the two of them and sat next to her friend on the damp boulder. Sighing, she folded her arms for warmth and watched her breath unfurl in misty spirals on the crisp air.

"You look like you're having the time of your life," she said to Jamie, who still hadn't looked up from the lake. When her friend didn't respond, except to shift her gaze to her knees and bite her bottom lip, Lily went on. "You know, you did the right thing. Back there, I mean. With Frank."

Jamie's face fell a little as she turned to make eye contact with Lily. "I'm not so sure I did," she said very quietly.

Lily's brow creased. She spoke gently. "Of course you did, Jay. There was no use lying to him." A sudden thought occurred to her. "Wait – you _did_ tell him the truth, right?"

Jamie's expression wavered for a brief moment, and she paused as if unsure how to respond, but then she said, "Yes, of course," and Lily exhaled in relief.

"He needed to know, trust me. And..." She hesitated, considering how to phrase her next bit of friendly advice, so as not to sound too pushy. "Now you're free to work on that other somebody."

Jamie's face went as blank as a clean slate board as she turned to look at the water again. Lily thought she caught a faint trace of anger in her friend's eyes, and wondered what she'd said to set her off.

"What, Jamie?" she inquired.

"Remus... he doesn't like me."

"_What?_ How can you be so sure of that?"

Jamie sighed in exasperation. "Lily, he started a shouting match with me when I tried to confront him. He hasn't even spoken to me since. I don't know what else to think, except that he's trying to tell me he doesn't feel the same way but just can't figure out how to do it. It's obvious, and very simple, really. I've moved on."

Lily wanted to shake Jamie, to slap some sense back into her, to scream and tell her there was no way any of that was true, but she stopped herself for two reasons – one, she became aware of the fact that, in rooting for Jamie and Remus, she was really wishing desperately that there could be hope for her and James; two, she heard several deep voices from behind her. Upon twisting her torso around, she saw four all-too-familiar figures striding down the hill toward them, silhouetted dramatically in the moonlight.

"Come on, Jay, they're here," Lily muttered, getting to her feet. She and Jamie hurried to join Hannah and Regan, who were standing stoically at the base of the hill in preparation for a showdown with the Marauders. Lily's heart gave an excited little leap as it always did when confronted with the prospect of competition – though she wondered if, this time, it might have something to do with a certain black-haired boy walking toward her, hair disheveled, dressed casually in jeans and a grey t-shirt that somehow clung to his every muscle despite its bagginess.

"Rogues," Sirius acknowledged in a deep voice as the four boys came face to face with their foes.

"Marauders." Hannah nodded, her face stiff.

No one spoke for a moment or two, perhaps afraid to break the tension in the air. Puns aside, they were all being intensely serious as they stood facing each other. In fact, Lily didn't remember when they'd last been this businesslike since their biggest duel back in fourth year (Regan had summoned Peter's clothes while he was in the shower and tossed them into the Common Room fire, and it turned out the Marauders could actually be quite protective of their lump of a friend; they'd announced a four-on-four duel). James caught Lily's eye briefly before looking quickly away without so much as a smile.

Peter sneezed. At that moment, apparently, James deemed it safe to speak. "So what is it this time? Another game of hex-and-run? Or, Merlin forbid, have you called us here for a rematch – you know we won that duel fair and square."

"Bet they want to shove Veritaserum down our throats," Sirius said venomously. As soon as he said it, he must have thought he'd given them an idea or something, because his face became ever so slightly fearful.

Reminded of that painful night in the Heads' Room, Hannah glared furiously at him, her eyes filled with fire.

"Actually," she spat, "we thought we'd try something a little different tonight." She exchanged a glance with the other three Rogues (it was clearly intended for dramatic effect, but Regan still looked as if she might scream out in protest to what Hannah was about to say). "Lily, the table, if you please."

Lily nodded and slipped out her wand. She pointed it at a few decent sized rocks on the water's edge and spoke the incantation, "_Planus saxum_." Before their eyes, the rocks began to flatten and, with a little more spellwork, took the form of a low table on the dirt between them. As Lily stowed her wand away, Hannah fished out a small box from her pocket and knelt at the newly constructed table.

"Um... okay," Sirius said, baffled. "Not to sound all McGonagall or anything, but _what is the meaning of this_?"

He did sound like McGonagall, and for that Hannah fixed him with a mocking glare. Turning back to the task at hand, she opened the box and pull out a deck of misshapen cards. They were different from Muggle cards, Lily noticed as Hannah began to shuffle them – instead of the usual aces, spades, diamonds and hearts, these cards featured the four animals of the Hogwarts house crests: a red lion, a yellow badger, a sapphire eagle and a hissing green snake. The only other difference, apart from the thicker, rougher material from which they were made, was that the numbers were written in roman numerals, so Lily figured the game should be easy enough to comprehend.

"You know the drill," Hannah said without emotion, mindlessly shuffling the deck over and over. "We'll go with Gryffindor rules – red's the power suit, twos are wild cards, both halves of Godric take all. You get Salazar, automatic loss." Hands moving so fast they were but a blur in the partial darkness, she dealt eight hands before looking up at the others. "Well? What are you waiting for?"

Sirius's face held a mixture of confusion and disbelief. "I knew you had a few problems, Milton, but I never thought gambling was one of them. You can get help for that, you know."

Hannah's consequent glare was about twelve times colder than the wintry atmosphere. "I know it's hard, but at least_ try_ not to be an idiot. It's strip poker, Black. Maybe you're familiar with it? I seem to recall you bringing it up when we all met, back in first year. You and your flirtatious ways." She shook her head and sneered. Sirius just narrowed his eyes at her.

"Strip poker?" Peter whined. "But I'm not wearing any underw- OW!"

Sirius, who had just pinched Wormtail's shoulder, nodded curtly at the Rogues. "You're on. But expect to show some major skin, ladies, because I never lose at my own game." He lowered himself to his knees by the table, and the others, somewhat grudgingly, followed. The smirk never left Hannah's face as the rest of the Rogues crouched beside her.

"I wouldn't be so cocky, Black. We're leaving our fate up to the cards." As she said this, she slipped Lily an inconspicuous wink, which was the cue they'd arranged ahead of time. As Hannah went on to further explain the rules of the game (Peter not only looked terrified but utterly lost as well), Lily snuck out her wand and muttered the spells needed to tip the game just a little in their favour – not enough for anybody to take notice, hopefully, but enough to keep them safely out of the embarrassment zone.

"Right," Hannah began, when they'd all turned over their hands. "If one of us wins the hand, we pick a Marauder to take the blow. If you guys – by some miracle – win, you pick one of us. Get it?"

The Marauders nodded slowly while exchanging suspicious glances.

Hannah's eyes suddenly lit up with a new idea. "And you know what, I've got another rule to throw in. If somebody gets both halves of Godric, they can elect somebody from the other team to jump in the lake _after_ undressing."

"It just keeps getting better," James muttered to Remus before they launched into play.

Lily, having very little experience with the game, tried to keep her best poker face on. She started out with three nines (red, blue and yellow) and a couple of fives. She was relieved to see her spell was working, but at the same time worried that the Marauders might somehow have gotten in on their extra luck. With her level of poker skill, the emotions were probably flitting obviously across her face as she peered over her cards.

"I'll raise you one piece of clothing," Hannah challenged, her poker face enviously set. Sirius, across the table, didn't so much as hesitate.

"Done," he said.

"Wait your turn," Hannah hissed savagely, turning to Jamie. "You first, Jay."

"Uh, call, I guess?"

"Lily?"

"I'll... call."

They carried on around the circle until Peter had folded, Remus and James had matched the bet and Sirius had raised it.

"Raise you one," he announced determinedly, staring Hannah down. "I told you I wasn't backing down that easily."

Hannah shrugged indifferently without meeting his eyes. "Suit yourself. But don't say I didn't warn you."

When the bet settled on three garments, Lily opted for a quick escape and folded as soon as she got the chance. Hannah rolled her eyes, but Lily stood by her decision, knowing she'd rather be safe than sorry. Hannah, Regan, Sirius, Jamie and Remus remained in the game and were getting ready to reveal their hands.

"Alright, go," Hannah said. "Why don't you start, Black? Just to get your pathetic hand over with."

Sirius's jaw was set as he narrowed his eyes. "I don't like your attitude, Milton."

"Well then we're even. Now go!" she insisted.

"Fine." He dramatically laid out his hand on the stone table. "Four sevens, if you count the wild card," he said triumphantly, leaning back. "You'd better start unclasping your robes, Milton."

"You must be in heaven," Hannah practically growled; Lily could have sworn she saw a bit of a blush on the blonde's cheeks, but it was difficult to tell in the frail moonlight.

"I've got a straight," Regan said as she put down her cards, causing Hannah to practically howl with glee.

"HA! What did I tell you? Shot down already. What happened to 'I never lose at my own game'?"

Sirius wasn't happy with this at all. His chest rose rapidly up and down in fury as he stared at Regan's near-perfect hand on the table. "Shut it. Remus is still in the game. If he wins, you're still going down."

Lily's attention shifted to Remus, but his face wasn't revealing any secrets. She'd have to wait and see whether or not her spell had truly worked.

Hannah dropped her cards casually onto the table and said, "Full house."

"Four tens," Jamie muttered.

They all turned to Remus, who finally glanced up from his cards with blank eyes. He stared at all of them in turn, making the round very slowly, until his gaze landed on Lily; it was filled with something almost like accusation, and her heart jumped. Had she been found out?

But then he tossed down a four, a three, a six, a goblin and a wizard (Lily assumed these were the equivalents of Jacks and Kings), and said, "I've got nothing. Bad luck, Padfoot."

Sirius let out a groan of frustration. "Great! Just great! Why would you even stay in the game with a hand like that, Moony?"

Remus's gaze flickered over to Lily's again, and she looked away instantly. "It's called bluffing you moron. And besides, it's not like it would have changed anything if I'd folded."

Sirius just sighed dejectedly in response as Hannah initiated a hushed commute with the other Rogues. "You all know who I vote for," she said evilly. "Lupin hardly deserves it."

"Agreed," said Lily, and was echoed by Regan and Jamie (although the latter did hesitate infinitesimally).

"Black, we pick you." The pride was blatant in Hannah's voice as she announced their decision, but Sirius's tone was nothing but pure acid.

"Of course you would." Lily thought he would protest, unwilling to accept his loss, but he barely paused before tearing off his cloak and throwing it to the ground. "There. Happy now? I'm telling you, this is all you'll be seeing. Enjoy it while it lasts."

"Oh trust me," Hannah said with a wink. "I'm enjoying every moment of this – watching Sirius Black get beaten at his own game by a bunch of girls..."

The game progressed slowly as the bets became more daring. Lily was cautious, folding if her hand wasn't guaranteed to save her; Sirius, on the other hand, played ruthlessly. Even when dealt a dud, he wouldn't give in, lest his dignity be injured. Hannah clearly got a hoot out of watching him falter with each round; his determined expression, his cocky smirk, and then his face screwing up with anger every time one of the Rogues knocked him down. By the end of five rounds, good old Padfoot was down to pyjama shorts and a skimpy white undershirt. He didn't look at all embarrassed, though Lily suspected it was only his tough exterior prevailing. James had lost his cloak, but only because Regan suggested they expand their target for a bit.

"This is just ridiculous," Sirius finally exclaimed. "How is that you haven't lost a _single _round? Are the cards rigged or something? You know what? I bet they are. That's _just_ the sort of dirty trick you four would pull." He glared accusingly at them all while Remus muttered something to his knees. "What was that, Moony?" he asked. Remus simply shook his head dismissively.

"I'm boooooored," Peter whined from his spot next to James.

"That's because you've folded at the beginning of _every_ round, dipshit," Regan said dully, playing with the ends of her hair. Peter's face fell at the insult, but Regan continued to look bored.

Next round, Peter didn't fold; in fact, he stayed in the game right till the very end, when only Hannah, Regan and Sirius remained. Needless to say, he ended up ditching five layers of clothing. This left him shirtless, clad only in a pair of fuchsia boxers and cringing in humiliation. He ran off and cowered behind a tree.

"Right, well, I guess that means Wormtail's out," James assessed with a raise of his eyebrows. They all turned to look at Peter slumped against a tall oak, but nobody bothered to get up and go after him. With a shrug, Remus dealt out the next round.

The others raised the bet to three, but when it came back around to Remus's turn, he did something totally unexpected. And stupid.

"I'll raise you seven."

Sirius was on too much of a roll to notice. "Call, yeah, whatever... wait, WHAT?"

"Seven," Moony repeated clearly. His poker face was impeccable – there was no hope in the world of reading it.

"I don't even _have_ seven things left on me!" Sirius yelled out in exasperation.

"Consider yourself in debt," Hannah said with a pleasant smile.

Sirius growled, and, after what appeared to be a lengthy, very agonising internal debate, he finally folded.

Hannah smirked. "Wimp."

"Shut up."

"Tut tut, Black. You ought to show more respect to your superiors."

"Superiors, my ass," he spat, leaning backward and distancing himself from the table.

James whistled brusquely. "Oi, lovebirds. Are we getting on with the game or what?"

"Yeah," said Hannah, recovering quickly and resuming her poker stance. "Forget about him."

"Fold," Regan said bitterly, throwing her cards at the table with great force. Hannah called, convinced that the Rogues held the winning cards as usual, and Jamie and Lily folded just to be safe. Come to think of it, Lily's hand this time was notably poor – two fours and a piece of Helga Hufflepuff. She was sure, though, that Hannah's cards were much better. Otherwise there was no way she'd be so confident... right?

"Call," said James. Lily looked up at him, confused. Why in the world wouldn't he fold with the stakes set so high? The Marauders' luck was rock bottom and still dwindling. And yet he and Remus stayed in the game, peering with identical, unfaltering gazes over their cards.

The bet settled at ten, they began to lay down their cards. Hannah had five of a kind (thanks to a wildcard) and flashed it ostentatiously before their eyes before laying it down. Lily breathed a sigh of relief and was reassured that her spell was still in full swing.

And then Remus laid down a flush. Hannah's eyes widened to an impossible size, Remus looked smug, and Sirius let out a jubilant whoop. "YES! YES! YES!" he cried, elated. "Serves you right, filthy cheat!"

"Wow, you know, I can't believe how excited you are to see me naked," Hannah retorted bitterly. She fiddled uneasily with the clasp on her cloak before turning to James. "Wait, what about Potter? Show us your hand, so we know you guys haven't duplicated the cards or something."

James stared at her with a funny expression in his eyes. "Well, if you say so..." Slowly, in a very tension-building maneuver, James turned over his hand. Lily saw the faces of two glossy scarlet cards and gasped. Godric. Both halves.

"DAMN IT!" Hannah cried, her fingers entangled in her hair with frustration. "How could that have happened?"

"Just our luck, I suppose," James said with a shrug. He couldn't stop that cute little smirk of his from tugging at the corner of his lips, and Lily caught her heart performing a weird sort of flip-flop at the sight even though she knew this malevolence was aimed at her best friend.

"Whatever." Hannah coughed, stood up and began to take off her cloak. "One," she proclaimed as she dropped it to the ground in a dark heap. She pulled her turquoise sweater over her head. "Two." One shoe came off next, followed by the other, and then both socks. "Three, four, five, six." Hannah slipped the elastic out of her ponytail and let her blonde locks tumble down over her shoulders. "Seven."

"Hey, that's not a real piece of clothing!" Sirius complained.

"Hold your horses, Black. I've still got three to go." Next came her jeans, and then her long-sleeved shirt. "Eight, nine." That left a skimpy pair of white pyjama shorts and a red t-shirt, and under that, of course, only underwear. Lily's heart caught in her throat – she knew Hannah should have been more careful and piled on the layers like the other Rogues had, but she had too much faith in their cheating tactics. She had too much faith in Lily. Now she was being punished because Lily, who was now filled with guilt, watching Hannah prepare for ultimate humiliation, hadn't been able to cast a sufficiently durable spell.

"Right then." Hannah sighed and began to remove her t-shirt. Lily glanced at Sirius, who was practically ogling as the bane of his existence undressed before him, and then at James, who was hardly paying attention. This gave her an odd sort of satisfaction; one that she couldn't explain, that nearly made her cheeks turn red as she tried to quash it with other thoughts. Hannah pulled the shirt over her head, revealing a lightly tanned stomach and a lacy black bra. "Ten," she said finally, folding her arms across her front. Her voice took on a grumbling tone. "Are we done now?"

Sirius gulped and nodded very quickly, still staring at her as though his eyeballs were glued in that position in their sockets. Hannah, naturally, took notice of this straightaway. She planted her hands firmly on her hips. "You know, for somebody who frequently tells me how ugly I am, you're drooling an awful lot.

Sirius snapped out of it and turned away, a strange expression on his features. He said nothing.

Hannah picked up her t-shirt, but Remus cut her off.

"Wait," he said suddenly. Hannah looked confused; Jamie snapped to full attention and looked suspicious at the attention Remus was giving to her half-naked friend. "What about the rule?"

"What rule?" Hannah asked, totally oblivious.

"You clearly said at the beginning that, should somebody win with both halves of Gryffindor, they could elect someone from the other team to jump in the lake."

Hannah froze, and her face became irritated. "Oh come on, I've already been put through enough trouble, don't you think?" She gestured at the small amount she was wearing.

"Not enough to make up for the trouble you caused," Remus stated. He made an eye gesture at the cards. "Cheating, Rogues? I knew you played dirty, but this game is supposed to be played fair and square. I have to hand it to you, Lily – that was a nice bit of charm work. Damn near impossible to reverse."

"You... you reversed it?" she stuttered dumbly.

Remus nodded. "Sorry. But the tables had to turn eventually."

"I choose Milton," Sirius called out without turning fully around. His voice squeaked as he said, "To jump in the lake, I mean."

"Well, whoop-dee-doo," Hannah said sarcastically. She turned on her heel and walked swiftly over to the edge of the lake. It was a bit of a drop from here, and the water was the perfect depth; deep enough for a jump, but shallow enough not to be too dangerous. Hannah inhaled and exhaled slowly. "I'll bet this is freezing," she muttered more to herself than anyone else. Lily felt another pang of guilt as Hannah readied herself for the jump.

It hit her then, as Hannah stood under the stronger beams of moonlight, just how different her friend looked. She looked somehow thinner, almost unhealthy; her ribs were almost sticking out under her skin, and her arms had lost a considerable about of substance. There also seemed to be a larger gap between her thighs than normal, and Lily could almost make out two pale lines on the side of one of her hips, but she figured it was probably just a trick of the light.

"I can't believe you're making me do this," Hannah whimpered, taking one step closer to the edge of the lake. Nobody said anything, and then Hannah giggled and ran forward. "CANNON BALL!" she screamed, flinging herself upward in a high arc and into the water with a splash. While the others stood there, perplexed, Hannah resurfaced and laughed. "You're all freaks. That was hardly even a punishment, actually. It's quite nice in here."

"Oh, really?" Sirius challenged, speaking for the first time since James's miracle win.

"Yes. In fact, I dare you to jump in. It'd probably do you some good – you know, recover what reputation you have left as a man..."

Sirius needed no more encouragement; a split second and he was at the edge of the lake. Another, and he sprang off and plunged into the water. His dark head came up a couple feet from Hannah's, coughing and sputtering. "You bitch, you LIED!" he bellowed, shaking water from his hair. "This is bloody FREEZING!"

"Told you you were a wimp," Hannah replied casually as she swam toward the rocky bank and began to pull herself out of the water.

Five minutes later both Hannah and Sirius were back on solid ground and everyone was dressed again. Peter had needed some coaxing to come out from behind the tree, but eventually he was persuaded (Lily heard James telling him "Come on, Wormtail, Regan's so staring at you right now", and thought that might have played a minor role in his emerging from hiding).

"So," Remus said, after handing his cloak off to a pleading Sirius, "are you done with us now?"

Lily was about to breathe a sigh of relief at the notion of this evening's events being over when Hannah stepped in and said, "Nice try, oh-wise-one. I'm afraid that didn't quite meet the mark for what we had in mind."

James, hands stuffed in pockets, rolled his eyes. "Oh yeah? I think you're just bitter because you lost to us and now you haven't had the chance to take advantage of the circumstances."

Lily thought he was probably right, but one look at Hannah's face made her rethink that judgement. She was torn somewhere between livid and embarrassed, her face wavering between the two emotions, her eyes narrowed at the Marauders.

"You may be right, Potter, but we're not giving up without a fight. We've still got the blackmail material, remember?"

James's expression darkened at this. "How could I forget?" he muttered, angling his body away from the Rogues and retreating from the conversation.

"Well, make up your minds soon," Sirius grumbled, "'cause it's got to be minus a billion out here." He shivered.

"Aww, how cute, Hogwarts' 'heartthrob' is acting like a five-year-old girl," Hannah cooed.

Sirius scowled. "Say that again, Milton, and this five-year-old girl is going to rip your ugly head off."

Hannah flinched ever so slightly at the comment but carried on as normal, scoffing at his threat. "You'd never hit a girl," she spat, taking a confident step forward. "You don't have the guts."

Remus cut in. "You two, I don't think this is-"

"Oh yeah?" Sirius challenged indignantly, ignoring his friend's intervention. "Well since you certainly don't act like a girl, I think I can make an exception."

Hannah only smirked, apparently positive this was an argument she couldn't lose. "Black, just because the girls _you _date – if you can call it dating – are total pushovers doesn't mean that's how every girl has to act." She narrowed her eyes and adopted a firm stance before him. "And go ahead," she hissed. "_I dare you_."

Sirius stood motionless, his face illustrating the indecision in his mind. One of his fists clenched, but Lily couldn't tell whether it was in preparation for a swing or a simple gesture of fury. A moment later he unclenched it, exhaled, and turned away from Hannah shaking his head.

"Well, since Black here is obviously a total pansy, I think we've found our next game," Hannah declared, speaking to the others now.

"Which is...?" Regan questioned in a bored tone. She was slowly picking apart a pinecone and throwing the pieces at Peter, who didn't seem to notice.

"Dare," Hannah said loudly. "The other half of _Truth or Dare_. You eavesdroppers might recall hearing that somewhere before." She glared at the Marauders; Sirius glared back, James and Remus exchanged an almost guilty glance, and Peter looked confused.

"I don't remember hearing it."

"Pete," James urged, "you were right in front of the peephole when they brought it up."

"Oh."

Hearing James speak so casually of that fateful night made Lily's stomach twist, and no matter how hard she tried to suppress the negative reminiscence, it didn't work.

"I think that's a great idea, Hannah," she said, stepping forward. She wasn't sure what made her do it; maybe the sudden memory, or maybe the fact that she was half-frozen and barely awake. That might do it. The others seemed surprised to hear her speak, but she held her ground, smirking. "And no Imperiusing us, boys."

"Are you suggesting we're involved with dark magic?" Sirius joked, sounding hurt. "Evans, I'm offended."

Lily shrugged. "Just gotta cover all our bases. Like Potter said before, evil takes a certain degree of intelligence, and I can't say any of you even come close to the cut-off mark."

"Spoken like a true McGonagall, dear Evans," Sirius commented with a curt bow.

"Okay, okay, enough dilly-dally," Hannah cut in, sounding annoyed. "So who wants to go first?"

After a quick round of "Spin the Wand" (Regan volunteered Peter's wand for the deed), Jamie was appointed the first worthy recipient of a dare. While Jamie fiddled nervously with one of her sleeves and begged Hannah to demand a re-spin, the Marauders huddled a few metres away to decide her fate. After a minute or two, they returned – three with anticipatory smirks on their moonlit faces and one bearing a frown. Remus didn't look happy at all, though not it wasn't in a "Why me?" sort of way. It seemed more like concern for somebody else.

"Alright," Sirius announced, "we've got it." He shot James and the other Marauders a scheming glance and turned back to the Rogues. "It's your lucky day, little Miss Love – Moony here has agreed to be your personal punching bag."

Remus folded his arms sullenly as if to contrast Sirius's "agreed" statement. He shot Jamie an apologetic look, but she just averted her eyes, looking entirely disbelieving.

"Well? What are you waiting for?" Sirius urged with all his usual impatience.

"Er...," Jamie began, "what exactly do you want me to do?"

"Land a nice right hook on our friend here. Preferably to the face, but you can choose."

Jamie looked uncomfortable and made no move to accept the dare, so Lily stepped in in her defense. "Look, guys, she clearly doesn't want to do it, so can't you come up with something a little more... civil?"

"Ah, but is not general incivility the very essence of love?"

Lily snorted, her eyes practically bulging out of their sockets. "_You _read Muggle literature? I must admit, Black, that's rather pathetic."

Sirius scratched his head. "Literature? Actually, Bertha Jorkins screamed it at me... right before she tried to pick a fight over the pattern on my socks and then insisted we were meant to be together."

Lily smiled a bemused smile. "Nice. Real nice."

"Back to the point," Hannah interrupted. "Are you guys gonna choose a new dare for Jamie or not?"

"Absolutely not," Sirius said shrilly, sounding offended.

James shrugged and translated. "Padfoot says they have 'issues to sort out'."

"Fine, I'll do it," Jamie suddenly piped up. The others turned to look at her in surprise as she moved gradually toward where Remus was standing.

"Are you sure, Jay, 'cause they're not being very fair about this...," Hannah told her.

"A dare's a dare," Jamie justified with a tiny shrug. She stepped up right in front of Remus, looked at him for a few seconds, and then swung her arm back. The blow was quick, almost too quick to see, but everyone saw Remus hunch over in pain after Jamie's fist hit his cheekbone. Somebody – Lily couldn't tell who it was – gave a gasp; it could have been Hannah, Peter, or even Lily herself. She was too transfixed with what had just happened to pay much attention. That punch had clearly been more than just obligation – it was filled with actually feeling. What was going on between those two? Jamie had been quite secretive lately, and she'd oftentimes been acting strangely. But this? This was totally out of character.

"Sorry," Jamie muttered quietly, turning and whisking quickly back into the ranks of the Rogues. Her voice was so blank that Lily wondered if she actually did harbour any regrets for the punch at all.

"Okaaaaaaaaaay," Sirius said, breaking the awkward silence that had fallen between the two groups. "Uh, shall we spin again?"

Another spin of Peter's abused wand chose its owner as the next candidate, and Regan practically danced for joy at this. The Rogues congregated away from the Marauders and began to contemplate suitable dares. It was rather difficult – they knew that pretty much anything at all would embarrass Peter, but for that reason Hannah and Regan deemed most of the suggested dares "not fun enough". Finally, Hannah gave a gasp so loud that the Marauders glanced over worriedly at them.

"I've got it!" she whispered excitedly. "What if we let him pick the thing he most wants to do?"

Regan's voice turned very dull. "And why would we grant Pettigrew that luxury?"

"Don't you get it? By letting him pick a dare, we find out what it is he really wants to do... Trust me, it can work."

"Sure," Regan said, crossing her arms, "but I'm telling you, it's a waste of a very valuable dare."

They joined the group back by the lake and Hannah delivered their verdict. "We've decided to let Mr Pettigrew choose his own dare." She grinned conspiratorially. "Whatever it is he most wants to do."

"Are you serious?" Sirius scoffed. When Regan opened her mouth to comment, he snapped, "That pun is SO not funny anymore, Tain." Regan just shrugged and resumed her blasé stance, while Sirius broke into a disbelieving laugh.

"Don't be so immature, Black. It's our decision and you can make what you want of it. Now quit stalling and get to it."

Sirius shrugged, amused, and turned to Peter. "So, Pete, you lucky man, what's it to be?"

It turned out that, if Sirius had been stalling with his incredulity, Peter was aiming to keep this little game going into the early hours of the morning. He stood in deep thought, pondering the ideal dare. Regan groaned, yawned, and slumped down against the base of a large tree with her eyes shut. Lily spent this time watching James out of the corner of her eye, comfortable to do so under the night's dark cloak. He didn't appear to be paying attention to the hushed conversation between Remus and Sirius; instead, he was staring across the Black Lake with blank eyes as if he wasn't really seeing anything there. Lily had to admit, he looked pretty cute when he was deep in thought (unlike Peter, who looked like a constipated flobberworm). With his eyes narrowed, shoulders hunched slightly forward, bedraggled hair blowing in the wind...

James's eyes locked onto hers, and she promptly turned away. As she waited for her burning cheeks to cool down, she mentally kicked herself for acting so awkwardly. She'd never had trouble speaking very directly to James Potter in all her six years and some at Hogwarts. Why should she avoid his gaze now?

Peter suddenly made a bizarre noise, like a deranged horse or a a pig caught in a lawnmower. He sounded pained, but when Lily glanced over at him she saw that he was, in fact, very excited. He smiled as if he'd just had the world's greatest epiphany, and motioned for Sirius to come closer. Sirius obeyed and leaned down as Peter whispered something in his ear. The taller boy's eyes grew to almost three times their normal size as he listened, his mouth dropping open in stupefaction.

"Er, alright mate, if you say so...," he whispered a little too loudly. Sirius stood up and collected himself. His face took on a devious expression while the Rogues looked on in confusion. "Wormy here wants us to choose his dare for him... and uh... we dare him to kiss Tain! Er... on the lips!" His tone was altogether unconvincing, partly because he sounded so uninspired but mostly thanks to the enthusiastic nodding Peter was doing in the background.

One of Regan's eyes snapped open. "Tell me that was a bad dream," she said stonily, glaring daggers at all four Marauders.

"You heard it right," Lily mumbled, feeling incredibly sorry for her friend.

Regan threw her head back against the tree trunk in displeasure. There were several sharp intakes of breath at the same time; she did it with such force that it looked very, very painful. Regan, however, did nothing but stand up slowly and growl, "The entire universe is against me."

As Regan shuffled forward, the others formed circles around her and an ecstatic Peter. Comparatively, the look on her face was one of pure abhorrence, as if in this instant she were in the very depths of hell.

"Alright, Pettigrew, get this blasted thing over with," she spat in irritation. "And if you dare make any more moves – I'm warning you – you'll be off to the Hospital Wing in a miniskirt with broccoli sprouting out of your ears."

Peter gulped and nodded an intimidated nod, but eagerly stepped forward to close the distance between them. Regan closed her eyes and stood still; Peter stretched up on his tip-toes craned his neck, as Regan was considerably taller than him. His mouth formed a stupid, skewed sort of K shape as he puckered his lips and moved in for the kill. He missed the first time because he was trying to close his eyes to make it more dramatic, but finally he found his target. Regan's face screwed up in agony but Peter looked as blissful as Dumbledore surrounded by Muggle sweets. He put his hands on her face and kissed her passionately, meriting no response of course, but satisfied all the same. When he finally pulled away, Regan stumbled backwards and started coughing and wiping at her mouth with the sleeve of her robes.

"Ugh! Ugh! UGH!" she shouted. "The deal was LIPS, not TONGUE – you MORON!"

Peter didn't seem to notice her outraged cries; he stepped backward with one foot at a time, thoroughly dazed. He might as well have floated away on a cloud.

"Uh, Earth to Wormy," Remus said, waving a hand in front of Peter's face. "You're about to get totally maimed. Might be a fair idea to run for cover about now."

Snapping halfway back to his senses, Peter took Remus's advice and hid behind his friends while the Rogues attempted to calm Regan down.

"Regan, it's alright. It's over now. You don't have to do it again," Jame consoled, holding one of the brunette's arms steady as she fidgeted, getting ready to take a run at Peter.

Regan's teeth clenched. "I highly disapprove of acting like such a sissy, but I NEED MOUTHWASH _NOW!_"

"Alright, alright. We'll head back to the castle and get you some," Lily offered.

"Wait," whispered Hannah. She gestured at the Marauders. "They're still winning. We can't leave now!"

Lily sighed, rolling her eyes. "Look, it's only going to get worse from here. We should probably just pull out while we still can."

Hannah looked indecisive for a second or two before she exhaled and gave in. "All right. But We can't let them think they've won just yet."

"Oi! What are you two whispering about?" Sirius called suspiciously over to them.

"What insufferable gits you are," Hannah replied easily, turning to face the Marauders. "We're gonna call it a night, but don't get cocky – you haven't seen the last of us yet."

"No, we don't have that kind of luck," Remus said with a roll of his tired eyes.

"Ah, but someday we will, my friend," Sirius remarked, giving Remus a pat on the shoulder.

"Aww," Hannah said sweetly, "Poor ickle Marauders. So delusional..."

"In your dreams, Milton."

"Oh, you _wish_ you had a part in my dreams. I'm afraid those are limited to people I actually _respect_."

"Whatever."

"Right, um, we should head back to our dormitories," Lily interrupted, gesturing at Regan in all her furiousness, and at Peter, who still looked like he was on hallucinogens of some variety.

"Lily's right," James agreed. "It's getting late and the longer we stay out the more we risk getting caught by Filch... or whoever happens to spot us from the windows."

With that in mind they all started to migrate in the direction of the school entrance, mind you, in a somewhat distorted procession; Regan walked far ahead of the others, keen to get to that mouthwash, while Jamie and Hannah were several paces behind her. Lily's legs were so stiff, and her toes so cold, that she found herself walking at the very back of the group, behind the Marauders.

To her surprise, James fell back from the group and began to walk beside her.

"Hey, um... Lily?" he asked hesitantly, his hands deep in his pockets.

"Mmm?" Lily responded with chattering teeth.

James paused a moment and got that thoughtful expression on his face again that was so- wait. Lily stopped herself before her cheeks could go red again and tried to concentrate on whatever James was about to say.

"About what you guys saw last night... well, I know technically you have the right to tell the whole school if you want to, but I think it would be best if you kept quiet."

Lily regarded him quizzically. So _that_ was what he'd been worrying about. But... why? What could be so big that he had to actually confront her personally to stop it getting out?

"Look, I know it's not really fair," he went on when Lily stayed quiet, "but... what we were doing last night, it's far more serious than this... 'war' or whatever it is that's going on between the eight of us. It's not my place to elaborate on the details, but do you think you could... you know... ask Hannah to let this one slide?" He looked at her with such pleading, such worry in his eyes that Lily just nodded without giving it a second thought.

"Yeah, sure," she said. "I'll do what I can." She thought for a moment. "And I'm pretty sure Hannah won't argue with me... we've been a bit touchy since we had a little falling out a while back."

James looked at her with concern. "You two had a fight?"

Lily lowered her head. "It wasn't anything huge... I sort of half stuck up for Sirius after that whole chocolate incident and she bit my head off for it, and- wait, why am I telling you all this?"

He just laughed, apparently enjoying her little rant. "Beats me," he said. Then his voice took on a more serious tone. "And, er, by the way, Lily... that agreement we made earlier, about not asking each other any questions..."

"About the Room of Requirement. Right."

"Well, since you aren't going to tell anybody about the whole Whomping Willow thing, I think it's only fair if we keep our mouths shut about whatever the hell you four were doing in that room. I mean, it's not like I'm not curious or anything, but..."

"It's none of your business," Lily said, though her voice was teasing, and she said it with a smile. "But yeah... thanks. I appreciate that. I'm sure Hannah – and the others – will, too."

James grinned. "Well, I guess that's settled, then."

"Yup."

"And Sirius is looking at me weirdly, so I'd probably better go explain myself." He gave an apologetic shrug. "You okay to walk by yourself?"

"I've only been doing it since I was two," Lily retorted sarcastically. James laughed and offered a little wave before jogging off to catch up with the Marauders.

For some reason, Lily couldn't wipe the smile off her face. She breathed in deeply and let the frigid night air fill her lungs in attempt to stop her heart from beating so fast, but it hardly worked at all. Instead, she decided to stop and reflect. It was only then that she realised what she'd just done. She'd just had a meaningful private talk with James Potter – and, not to mention, she hadn't ripped his throat out in the process. On top of that, she'd made a secret agreement with James Potter. Worst of all, she had a stupid, dopey smile on her face. Because of James Potter.

And yet, no matter how hard she tried to wipe it away, it stayed firmly in place until she fell asleep that night.

* * *

**A/N: I know. I fail at chapter endings. But I had to end that one there or it would have gone on for at least three more pages, I think, and I decided it was better just to upload now and save whatever else I have to say for the next chapter. Speaking of that next chapter... yes... well... er, my schedule is a little tight for the next two weeks. I have five exams and therefore a rather Everest-like mountain of study to do. Knowing me, however, there may be a chapter in the works or even uploaded by this Friday, because I'm such a procrastinator. Don't get your hopes up, but it's possible.**

**Oh, and I'm truly insulted that nobody played my little page break guessing game in the last chapter. (Yes, I know. It's dorky. But that's just me.) As a reward, there was a grand total of ZERO page breaks in this chapter, because clearly, you're all no fun at all. (I'm kidding, of course. Feel free to disregard my pathetic guessing game.)**

**_~Sam (PrincessEarth)_**


	21. Back on Track

**Plot:** The infamous Marauders weren't alone in their love for pranking. In fact, they often had their butts kicked by a bunch of girls. Now, this is it. Seventh year. Four girls, four boys. Two opposing pranking teams. One Hell of a battle to be won.

**Disclaimer: **Harry Potter and all its characters and themes are the property of J.K. Rowling. The only characters I own are Jamie, Hannah, Regan and a few minors. Other than that it's purely fanfic.

**Chapter notes:** I know. You're all tired of my pathetic excuses, so I'm no going to waste your time trying to explain why I failed to update for SIX FREAKING MONTHS. There is a simple way for me to put this, and here it is: I LIED. I FAIL. I AM AN IDIOT, AND YOU ARE ALL AWESOME. I mean seriously. I asked for encouragement in the form of reviews, and I got it. In fact, you guys kept on giving it to me right up until ten minutes ago, when TMATR got its 150th review (or rather, when I saw it there - but it couldn't have been showing up on the site for long, because I've been checking this story every couple of hours to make sure I'm not creating massive plot holes. Yes, _that's_ how long it's been since my last update). My point is, thank you all for your amazing reviews. They were enough to keep me going, but I still failed at updating. I couldn't ask for better readers. So it's me who's the problem in all this, although really, I've known that for a long, long time.  
Pffft, so much for not ranting about my lack of updates. Anyway, some of you asked for a long chapter, so I decided to just go wild with this one. It worked.

You want long? Well, without further ado, I give you... (drumroll)

* * *

**Chapter Twenty-One - Back on Track**

Well, Lily decided, smiles never did last long when you were in your last year at Hogwarts. Especially when they were brought about by somebody who, not a month ago, had been the closest thing to your arch nemesis. This strange new Potter-induced smile was so foreign to Lily that she wasn't sure exactly _what_ she was so happy about. Where the heck had that come from, anyway? Potter was a prat. An annoyingly tall, gangly, smart-aleck prat with bad hair.

If she thought about it, though, his hair wasn't _bad_ so much as rebellious and unruly, and she had to admit there was something cute about the way it always stuck up at odd angles. And he _had_ been awfully nice to her last night at the lake, with all his reasoning and negotiating, so really, how justified was she in calling him a prat?

Whatever. The point was, Lily went to sleep after the Midnight Mischief (as Hannah was now referring to their after-dark adventure at the Black Lake) with a stupid grin on her face, though she wasn't entirely sure why. By the next morning, however, the smile was erased almost instantaneously. The reason?

Transfiguration.

McGonagall was evil. There was nothing else to it. She clearly had some sort of vendetta against seventeen-year-olds, or else she just woke up that morning and thought, "Hey, I think I'll make the seventh years drown in homework today. Death by overload of essays. That sounds fun. MUAHAHAHA."

When Lily sat down in McGonagall's classroom after breakfast, she vaguely remembered the professor having told them the day before that she'd be returning their most recent assessment this morning. A feeling of intense dreading settled in the pit of Lily's stomach as she brushed the feathers off her desk. (According to a source at breakfast, the third years had been experimenting with owls the day before, and after several exploding birds and one near-death experience, McGonagall had ended the class early and swept off in a rage.)

"Read it and weep," the professor said as she strode across the classroom, a bundle of parchment scrolls under one arm. This particular figure of speech was not particularly McGonagall-ish, but she said it in such a way that the whole class went tense with anticipation as she handed the essays back to their owners.

James, who sat with Sirius, was the first to have his assignment returned. From the look on his face, the _last_ thing he was about to do was weep. Potter, though, was always an exception in this class, so there was little to no chance that McGonagall was simply exaggerating.

Lily's parchment landed on her desk several minutes later. She wasn't sure if she wanted to open it. Across the room, she could see Peter dejectedly tearing up his parchment, cheeks bright red as Sirius and James laughed across the classroom at his evident failure.

"Mister Pettigrew," McGonagall called out sharply, "I'm afraid if you don't stop defacing your assignment this instant, I'll have to remove a further three marks from your score."

Peter looked up blankly at her. "But Professor, you've given me zero."

McGonagall's lips were tight. "Well, in that case..."

Regan was grinning as Peter continued to tear his essay to shreds. "Well, that made up for my lousy mark," she said brightly.

Lily smirked. "I swear, Reegs, you _feed_ off that boy's misfortune. It's becoming a bit disturbing, actually."

Regan just shrugged, not bothering to deny it. "Gimme a break. It's not my fault he's such a pitiful excuse for a Marauder. And a wizard. And a human being."

"Bitter, are we?" Sirius asked, leaning sideways out of his seat to smile condescendingly at them. Lily decided it was a good thing McGonagall had recently swapped her with Hannah in the classroom seating arrangement; otherwise, the blonde would definitely have had some nasty retort for him. And frankly, Lily was getting a little fed up with their bickering.

"Nope," Regan replied simply. "Don't see what we have to be bitter about where Pettigrew's concerned. Besides, who needs Transfiguration anyway?"

Lily awaited Sirius's response, but it never came. Instead, a self-satisfied smirk pulled at the corners of his lips and a tall shadow fell across the floor between their desks. Lily looked up.

"Miss Tain," McGonagall started tersely, "I suppose that was your horrific idea of a joke?"

Regan's blue eyes went wide and she froze in place as if she had a blackboard strapped to her torso. "Er... yes. A joke. And a bad one, too." Lily could practically see the anxiety rolling off of Regan in waves as she tried to save herself. "I mean, everybody needs Transfiguration. It's all... you know... um... stuff."

Lily couldn't help it - she had to muffle a snicker in her sleeve at her friend's pitiful attempt at rectification. From the sound of it, she wasn't the only one - Sirius and James, among others, were laughing blatantly. Of course, she mightn't have taken notice of that if James's throaty laugh hadn't sent a shiver up her spine.

Meanwhile, McGonagall was staring with those hawk eyes of hers at Regan, who was slowly shrinking down into her chair. For somebody who, not two minutes ago, had been talking about what a pathetic loser Peter was, she sure did look pretty cowardly now. Then again, it was hard not to when faced with the hawk eyes.

"I'm glad you think so," said McGonagall sharply, and so suddenly that Regan jumped. "Since you'll be spending three hours in this classroom with me after dinner, doing the "stuff" you clearly enjoy so much."

The Marauders' laughs became louder.

Regan blanched. "Um, Professor, that sounds a little wr-"

"In case I haven't made myself clear," McGonagall snapped, "I'm giving you DETENTION."

With that, she swiftly turned around and headed back toward her desk. Regan exhaled. Some of the colour began to return to her cheeks, but she was still visibly shaken. "Ruddy old bat," she muttered under her breath. Unfortunately, her breathing was still so out of control that "under her breath" turned out to be just a bit too loud.

"FOR THREE WEEKS," McGonagall added over her shoulder.

Regan let out a horrified gasp. "But Professor, what about Quidditch? Please don't let it interfere with the tryouts!"

At this, even the Marauders went silent. The class, at present, consisted of Gryffindors and Ravenclaws, and though the Ravenclaws didn't give a damn, every Gryffindor knew that Regan and Hannah made the best gall darn Beater squad ever to grace the Hogwarts Quidditch pitch with their presence. Pulling one of them out of the tryouts was as good as snapping Dumbledore's wand in two.

Well, there was always the other dynamic duo, made up of good old Padfoot and Prongs, but any Gryffindor would agree that the team just wasn't complete without all four of them. McGonagall bloody well knew that too, but for the "ruddy old bat," classroom discipline usually took priority.

McGonagall's lips were pursed as she stared Regan down, narrowing her eyes as if deep in consideration. Regan's eyes, in contrast, were wide with uncharacteristic pleading and worry, an emotion that, coming from Regan, would have shocked Lily if the topic of conversation hadn't been Quidditch.

"I cannot guarantee," McGonagall began, "that your detentions will not clash with the tryouts, but be on your best behaviour until then and you might just get lucky."

The Marauders snickered again, but neither McGonagall nor Regan took any notice. While the professor carried on with the lesson, Regan muttered something incoherent under her breath. Lily suspected it was some variation of "This is all Pettigrew's fault."

* * *

The weeks went by in a blur. Soon September was gone, and October loomed ahead with two main prospects in its midst: the annual Halloween feast (which, Lily remembered with a pang of urgency, she and James were supposed to be organising) and, as Hannah reminded her, Marauder-Rogue Combat, Phase Two.

With one month already under her belt, Lily could feel herself settling into all those familiar school routines - study, stress, study, watch back for Marauders, study some more... It wasn't a particularly agreeable schedule, but it was consistent, and that counted for something.

That said, not everything was the same this year. The workload was heavier, and she was no longer just an ordinary Hogwarts student, but Head Girl. This was a big year, she realised, and was going to be very different to the others. Of course, that was all without mentioning the biggest change - the one that had a little something to do with the Head Boy...

She was constantly battling over her emotions toward James, one moment convincing herself it was blasphemy to feel any sort of attraction to a Marauder, the next trying to reason with that more imposing mental voice, explaining that James wasn't just an annoying Marauder anymore, and that there was nothing wrong with liking him. On and on it went until Lily could take no more of it, and simply shut it out of her mind altogether.

It was impossible, however, to keep her thoughts away from that topic for long, especially when James himself kept popping up everywhere she went. When she passed him these days, she wasn't sure what to do - smile? Wave? Offer him the same hard glare she'd been giving him for six years? Their relationship was walking a fine line at present, making communication difficult. She thought he might help her out, maybe greet her in the hallways before she had to make the decision herself, but every time their gazes met, he averted his eyes, ran a hand through his hair and turned red. It was such a _James_ thing to do, but Lily couldn't help but feel a little hurt when he ignored her like that. Even though it was so very unreasonable to feel insulted at disregard from Potter. Of course, it didn't help that whenever James performed the gesture, it made Lily's heart flutter.

Lily was pondering over all this on the way to the Quidditch pitch one breezy Saturday morning. As she walked next to Jamie, pulling her cardigan more tightly around her, she shook her head in disgust. _Okay_, she thought. _Seriously, what has gotten into me? Heart fluttering when Potter does the hair thing? _Insulted_ at the fact that he ignores me? I've gone mental. I have. It's the only possible explanation for all this._

Her facial expression must have given something away, because Jamie turned to regard her with an amused smile. "Something on your mind, Lily?" she asked quietly, as the two of them entered the pitch and went to find a seat in the stands. In the open area, James, this year's Quidditch Captain, was giving a pep talk to a nervous-looking bunch of students from various years. Well, not _all _of them were nervous, Lily added as an afterthought when she spotted Hannah and Regan doing their usual "get pumped" warm-up and swinging their bats around like fools. She looked back at James, who was being harassed by Sirius as he attempted to go through a list of names. Well, if Potter took one thing seriously, it was Quidditch. He looked so sure of himself out there, so commanding...

Jamie snorted. "Well, that answers my question," she said, and folded her arms in satisfied conclusiveness as the two of them sat down.

"Shut up," Lily said, nudging her with her elbow. She was about to say something to Jamie, but bit her lip, wondering if it was still a touchy subject. Deciding just to go ahead with it, she said teasingly, "Bet you wish Remus were here, huh?" Jamie went tense at the mention of the quiet Marauder, so Lily added, "Sorry. It's just... well, now that Frank's not in the way anymore, I don't see what's stopping you two."

Jamie's eyes narrowed, though they stayed fixed on the Quidditch pitch, where the many Gryffindors were mounting their brooms, getting ready to warm up. She bit her lip, set her jaw and shook her head, saying to Lily, "I'm over it. It's obvious he doesn't feel the same way about me, so why waste my time? And I wouldn't say Frank is completely out of the picture..."

"What?!" Lily said, shocked. "I thought you two agreed things were over. You told me yourself you didn't feel anything for him. Have things changed? I mean... please, Jamie, don't tell me you're still stringing him along."

Jamie looked down at her knees, but shook her head, sending ripples down her long, golden ponytail. "No. I mean... we did. Break up, I mean. I'm just saying that I'm not... well, I'm not burning any bridges. Yet."

Lily didn't know what to say. She'd been so proud of Jamie for taking matters into her own hands on that night a few weeks ago, the night when everything had changed - or rather, when existing changes had been made clearer to them all. This hesitant side that Jamie was demonstrating now, though, made Lily wary. Jamie was known for her gentle nature and her reluctance to hurt people's feelings in situations like the one with Frank, but this time, she thought perhaps it was going too far. Frank was going to get hurt if Jamie decided to cross that bridge again, Jamie was clearly miserable about the whole thing, and Remus - Remus, who, Lily was sure, felt the same thing for Jamie as she felt for him - was just an added victim in the whole mess. Lily prayed Jamie wouldn't do anything stupid. She knew it wasn't likely that she would, but... well, the Marauders weren't the only ones who seemed to have changed as of late.

Suddenly, Jamie spoke up again. "What about you and Potter?" she asked, her voice surprisingly forceful. "You say you don't know what's stopping me and Remus, but what's stopping _you_ two?"

Lily looked hurt at that remark, a fold appearing in her brow. "That's different," she said, swallowing hard as she looked at the black-haired Marauder, flying with such grace overhead.

Jamie raised a sceptical eyebrow. "Is it?"

Even if Lily had had an answer for it, she wouldn't have had time to voice it. For at that moment, somebody walked up to the two of them. Lily and Jamie looked up at the same time; it was Remus. Jamie went tense all over, but Lily offered him a shy smile.

"Hey," Remus said in a friendly tone. "Do you mind if I join you guys? You got the best view of the pitch, and I don't really want to look like a loner sitting all by myself..."

"Sure," Lily said, and Remus sat down on Jamie's right, though he left a considerable gap between them while still maintaining enough proximity to speak to them.

"Where's Peter?" Lily added, only now noticing the fourth Marauder's peculiar absence. Quidditch tryouts were a big thing for the Marauders as well as the Rogues; each group had two players in the team, and for the time they spent on the pitch - in training, team meetings and games - the Marauders and the Rogues could set their differences aside for the good of the team, sacrificing their feud for Gryffindor honour, something that mattered to all of them. Even those who weren't on the team turned up to show their support, so it was odd that Peter hadn't come along.

"Oh," said Remus, frowning. "He broke about thirty of Trelawney's teacups yesterday. Merlin knows how it happened, but anyway, she gave him weekend detention. I think that's the first time I've ever seen Trelawney give detention, actually."

Lily laughed out loud, and even Jamie couldn't help but giggle slightly at that, as uncomfortable as she was sitting between the two of them.

"You'd better not tell Regan," Lily warned. "She'll have a heyday if she hears-"

Just then, a large, dark shape swooped past them, cutting Lily off. They all ducked as it flew by and turned sharply, and then came to a halt facing in their direction. Regan put her hands on her hips (all the while maintaining perfect balance) and looked at them with a huge grin on her face.

"What shouldn't you tell me?" she asked excitedly. "Is it something about Pettigrew? Did he jump off the astronomy tower? Oh, _please_ tell me he did!"

Before the others could reply, James, hovering about twenty metres away, blew a whistle and called out to Regan. "TAIN!" he bellowed. "Just because you've been on the team as long as I have doesn't mean I'm just going to hand your spot to you. Stop harassing the audience and get back over here!"

Regan's shoulders slumped and she rolled her eyes heavenward, looking annoyed. She turned around to stick her tongue out at James, and then faced the others again. "He thinks _he_ gets to make all the decisions," she muttered angrily.

"Well, he _is_ the captain," Remus reminded her, amused.

"Captain schmaptain," Regan said, waving her hand as if swatting a fly away. "If he doesn't keep me on the team, then so help him." She pounded her Beater's bat once into her other hand, and then sped away, back to the congregation of Gryffindors.

Lily shared a look with Remus and Jamie, and then the three of them settled in to watch the chaos that was sure to unfold.

The proceedings were entertaining, to say the least, just as they were every year - although somehow, it was more amusing to watch when it was James Potter who was trying to control it all. There were mid-air collisions, unintentional horizontal pirouettes as people lost their balance (due to the nerves, Lily suspected) and a whole lot of confusion. One boy, trying out for one of the remaining two Chaser positions (technically it was the _one_ remaining position, since there was no way in Hell Potter would replace Sirius), flew into the centre for his tryout, holding a bat in one hand.

"You there!" James called out from his broom, and consulted his clipboard. "Err... what's your name again?"

"Higgins," squeaked the boy, nearly falling off his broom. "Jeffrey Higgins."

_Ah_. Lily thought she'd recognised the pudginess, the straw-coloured hair, the general lack of composedness and coordination. Jeffrey's older sister, Lucinda, was a Hufflepuff in seventh year, and possessed much the same qualities.

"Okay, Higgins," James went on. "It says here you're trying out for Chaser."

Higgins looked confused. Even from the stands, Lily could see the glimmer of sweat on his brow. "I am," he said, nervously clasping the bat in both hands.

Now it was James's turn to look confused. "You are? Well, what are you doing with that Beater's bat? Chasers don't use them."

People laughed as they looked on from their broomsticks; Hannah and Regan were doubled over as they hovered by the goalposts. Higgins turned bright red. His response was too quiet to hear from so far away, but Lily thought she could make out the words "They don't?" on his lips.

From there, it only got worse. Dozens of hopefuls lined up to try their hand at playing Chaser, but none of them seemed to have quite the grace and dexterity that James, and Sirius as his "tryout assistant" displayed while they tested people. One by one, the unsuccessful players dismounted their brooms and walked dejectedly off the pitch, dragging their brooms behind them.

Then, just as James looked as he was about to tear his hair out, a small girl with long chestnut pigtails flew up next to him. She looked about twelve, but she had perfect control over her broom, and manoeuvred it with impressive agility.

"Excuse me," she said with no hint of shyness, "are you going to let me try out or not? I've been waiting here for _ages_, you know."

James turned to look at her with a puzzled expression on his tired face. "Who are you?" he asked, his eyebrows knitting together as he looked at his clipboard for the umpteenth time since tryouts had begun.

"Brooks," the girl said. "Ellen Brooks. My mom played Chaser for Slytherin twenty years ago, so I thought I'd give it a try."

James looked bemused at the mention of Slytherin, but he went on all the same. "Oh, right. I think I remember your name from the original list we got. I'm sorry, but we don't usually allow second years on the team. Since most of the other players are at least fifteen, it's hard to work with such big age gaps. You should come back in a few years and give it a try, though."

Ellen folded her arms defiantly. "Well, that's not fair. You haven't even seen me play yet."

James sighed and ran a hand through his dishevelled hair (even now, it didn't fail to make Lily's heart do things that didn't feel like they should be physically possible). "Look, I'm sorry, but I don't have time for-"

Just then, Regan made her second surprise appearance of the day. She swooped around James from behind, causing him to drop his clipboard in alarm. It fell, papers scattering everywhere, until it hit the ground.

"TAIN!" he shouted exasperatedly. "Stop being such a lunatic! I swear, I _will_ kick you off the team."

Regan grinned mischievously, flying around James again, this time playfully ruffling his hair. Lily felt a pang of jealousy, but it was the fact that Regan had the confidence to act that way around him, not her actually _doing_ it, that set it off. How come Lily couldn't be more like that? She tried to picture herself messing up James's hair - and nearly laughed aloud at the thought. No, Lily was much more timid by nature, though she wasn't afraid to stand up for herself. Regan, on the other hand, didn't have a problem doing whatever it was she wanted to do, even if others disapproved. And on the Quidditch pitch, where her confidence was multiplied tenfold (creating results that were almost dangerous), she didn't even have qualms with being almost friendly toward the Marauders. Then again, that was probably because, with Regan, it was difficult to precisely define "friendly."

James continued to look annoyed at Regan's apparent hyperactivity, while Regan herself was grinning like a Cheshire Cat - well, a rather _evil_ Cheshire Cat. She continued flying in pointless show-off-y circles and finally came to a stop beside little Ellen.

"Doesn't seem fair, you know," she said, shrugging her shoulders in that I'm-right-you're-wrong-but-I'm-just-going-to-pretend-to-accept-that kind of way. "She hasn't even tried out yet and you're already turning her down? Man, that's just rude."

Just then, Hannah flew up on Ellen's other side. The younger girl looked confused, albeit very pleased, at all the attention she was suddenly getting.

"Reegs is right," she said. "Give her a go."

James rolled his eyes. "I suppose you'll be begging me to let Firsties on the team next year, then?"

Hannah put on a fake pout. "Aw, don't be like that, Jamesie."

"Yeah, Potter's just being a big meanie," Regan added.

"Alright, alright!" Potter exclaimed in annoyance. "If it'll shut you two up, I'll let her try out. I'm warning you, though - I'm going to be just as ruthless as I've been with everybody else."

Regan and Hannah both gave Ellen high-fives, wished her luck, and flew the couple of yards to where Lily and the others were sitting.

"Man, I hope she's not just a dud with a big ego," Regan muttered as she jumped daringly off her broom and into the stands.

Hannah swung slightly more safely off her own broom, and laughed. "Nah, she'll be good. Her mother's Jolanda Brooks."

"Who?" Regan asked, confused.

Hannah shook her head, smirking. "Honestly, Regan, I thought you were a Quidditch fan. _Jolanda Brooks_ - used to be Dolohov - of the Appleby Arrows holds the world record for the most goals scored while the other two Chasers were down. She played as a single-person team at the World Cup in 1957 and _won_. She's a Quidditch legend. You're seriously telling me you haven't heard of her?"

Regan shrugged, but her eyes were fixed in marvel on Ellen, who was receiving instructions from James. "Must have escaped my eagerly researching eyes," Regan said sarcastically. "I _play_ Quidditch, Han. I don't read about it."

"Daughter of a legend or not," Lily cut in, "she's twelve. Do you really think she has what it takes to play alongside Potter and Black? Alongside _you two_?"

Hannah shrugged. "We've been playing since third year, and I was tiny back then. It's not all that different to playing with people your own size."

"Okay," said Lily with a shrug. "I suppose I wouldn't know anything about it. But don't you think it's a little dangerous?"

Before Hannah or Regan could respond, Remus interrupted. "Are you even watching this?" he said, gesturing at the pitch.

When Lily looked up, she wasn't sure what she saw. It just looked like a whole bunch of scarlet blurs, criss-crossind and circling in the air, drawing intricate patterns with their movement. When she looked closer, however, she was shocked at what she saw.

Sirius, James and Ellen were competing fiercely for the Quaffle. Sirius, playing the opposition, kept on trying to steal it and make for the goalposts. James, playing the teammate, was testing Ellen's passing skills as the two of them tried to take the Quaffle to the opposite end of the stadium.

Whatever doubts she'd had before about this young Chaser quickly dissolved into awe as she watched them. Ellen moved in and out between the two of them with amazing coordination and lightning fast reflexes. One moment, Lily would be sure Sirius was about to score - the next, the Quaffle was in Ellen's hands, as if she'd cast a summoning charm. It was an incredible thing to watch; two seventh years who'd met the ultimate match for their skills in a twelve-year-old girl. She wondered how their egos were doing right about now.

From the look on James's face when he slowed down enough for Lily to see it betrayed no real annoyance; there was that sliver of frustration that was only natural when one was struggling to win, but aside from that, he simply looked astounded. Sirius, on the other hand, was positively livid. He snatched the Quaffle again and again from Ellen's hands, or intercepted a pass between her and James, but in the end, she always got it back. When Sirius made a promising breakaway, Ellen caught up and pulled some crazy manoeuvre whereby she dove under Sirius's broomstick and snatched the Quaffle from his grasp. He was so shocked at this that he ended up hanging from his broom by one hand and had to make his way to the ground to right himself.

By the end of it all, Sirius could no longer contain his aggravation. It did not, however, come out in the way Lily had expected it to.

"Put that girl on the team _this instant_," he growled at James. He pointed a firm finger at Ellen, who was positively glowing with pride as she held the Quaffle in her small (but evidently very capable) hands.

James looked at Ellen in calm consideration.

"Okay, so that was some pretty good Quidditch you just showed us," he said slowly. "_But_ we need to know that you'll be committed. We practise four times a week, usually at about six in the morning, and you're going to have some angry seventh years whacking Bludgers at you too, so you can't blame us if you go home this summer with a disfigured face."

Ellen only giggled at that, as if he weren't being serious at all. "I'm in second year - it's not like I have anything more important to do. And I can dodge Bludgers."

Lily never heard a definitive yes or no about Ellen's making the team, but she suspected that the enthusiastic pats on the back from both Sirius and James more or less gave the answer away. Hannah and Regan flew back over to congratulate her, and then they proceeded with the tryouts.

Only two people showed up for the Keeper tryouts, and since one of them was completely hopeless (but, despite letting every shot in, failed to understand just how bad he really was) it looked like Carter Brown, Keeper of three years, was to stay on in that position.

Beater tryouts were interesting, if only because of the way James chose to do it. Neither he nor Sirius seemed to want to get bashed up by the rookies, so he gathered the lot of them (about six or seven altogether), handed them each a bat (except for Regan and Hannah, who had already helped themselves), and gave them a simple set of instructions.

"Okay," he called out, silencing them. "I'm going to warn you now, this could get a little messy. I want you to spread out around the edges of the pitch, and I'm going to release the Bludgers. There are two things you need to do: aim and dodge. Do both, and you'll make a decent Beater. Show me some skill, and you might make the team. If you're scared of getting bloodied up, well... choose a different dream."

On the other side of Jamie, Remus snickered. "Never knew he could rhyme," he said.

Things _did_ get messy. The Bludgers flew in all directions, sometimes because the potential Beaters were aiming that way, and sometimes because they were totally incompetent and the savage ball flew far off course, zig-zagging through the air. Some of the players got hit and cried out in pain, but continued in their attempts to demonstrate more skill than the others. It was hopeless, though - not even the best of the others held a candle to Regan or Hannah. The two of them played not only with expertise but with passion; Lily couldn't see from across the field, but she knew the look of concentration and exhilaration in their eyes when they lined up a hit. Every now and then, Regan even let out a malicious sort of cackle as she struck a perfect blow.

As Lily watched her friends, silently satisfied at the fact that, once again, there were definitely no grounds on which James could dismiss them from the team as he always threatened, she saw something out of the corner of her eye. Once it entered her line of vision, she had only a moment to realise what it was - a stray Bludger - and a further millisecond to react. It plummeted toward her at an alarming speed, and her eyes went wide as it headed straight for her face. She came to her senses just in time, throwing herself out of its path and, in the process, falling out of her seat.

"Lily!" Jamie gasped, but just as she said it, another voice echoed hers.

"Lily!" It was James, flying at full speed toward them, a look of utmost panic in his eyes. "Lily, are you alright?"

Lily slowly straightened up, more in shock than anything else. She frantically swept her hair out of her face, swallowed and quickly nodded, embarrassed at her discomposure. "Yeah, fine," she said. "Where did that thing come from?"

James looked relieved, but his face betrayed signs of fury. "Damn fifth years," he said through gritted teeth. "That was Harold Bagley. He can't hit for shit."

"There you go again with the rhyming," Remus remarked with a tight smile.

"Shut up," James said, doing the hair thing he did so often. "These idiots are driving me insane. There's no point even holding tryouts if we're just going to keep the same team we've had for the past three years. Oh, well, except for Ellen. What a find."

Lily smirked, the shock-induced tension beginning to ease from her body. "And to think you were about to turn her away," she said, shaking her head.

James smiled in response, and Lily's heart flipped. Yes, she was going to have to figure out a way to stop that.

"Well, I can tell you, I'm turning Harold away right this second. Tryout's over. I guess those nuts are back on the team." They all turned to look at Hannah and Regan, who were busy playing Bludger tennis.

Before James left, he and Remus seemed to exchange a weird glance. Remus's was knowing with a teasing edge, while James's seemed to say "What are you talking about?". For some reason, the exchange looked vaguely familiar.

"Okay, that's it!" James yelled, after blowing his whistle. There was an irritated tone to his voice. I've seen more skill from an innocent bystander" - he pointed at Lily - "than from any of you, so round up the Bludgers and get out of here."

Hannah and Regan did a few celebratory laps of the pitch, cheering, before landing and going to get changed.

Finally it came to the Seeker tryouts, for which there were at least a dozen Gryffindors lined up. They all looked extremely edgy save for one blonde Sixth Year, who Lily recognised as Avery Williams, whose older sister Rosalie shared a dorm with the Rogues and her best friend Alice Hanby. While Rosalie was confident but well-mannered and fairly modest, Avery was known for her exceptionally... well, _varied_ love life and slightly less conventional manners. Right now, she looked ten times as self-assured as any of the others, and the look she was casting at James caused a deep burning to settle in Lily's chest.

The group had moved so far away from the stands that Lily couldn't hear a word anymore, but she watched Avery with a close eye. Her body language was enough to show that she was here for reasons besides Quidditch, and that that reason was James. She kept on flashing her perfect white smile at him, giving him the puppy dog eyes, flirting so blatantly that Lily wanted to wring her neck.

_Whoa_, Lily thought, shocked at the ferocity in her own thoughts. It wasn't like James was being unfaithful or anything, Lily reminded herself. The two of them weren't even together. In fact, they weren't even prospectively together, unless you counted James's ten billion proposals in their first six years at Hogwarts, when he'd been _joking_ anyway...

Still, Lily couldn't help but feel anger toward Avery Williams, stuck by James like a magnet as he sorted through the list of names. She was even so bold as to wrap a playful arm around his shoulders as she spoke to him. James looked a little uncomfortable, but he wasn't doing much to fight her off.

"Lily, is there something wrong?"

Lily turned abruptly to see both Jamie and Remus staring at her with identical expressions of concern crossed with amusement.

"No," she blurted out, and tried to swallow her anger and appear perfectly calm. "Why would you think that?"

Remus chuckled and pointed at her hands; Lily looked down and was surprised to see that they were both clenched into tight fists, and her nails were leaving deep red marks in her palms. She gasped, flexed her fingers, and put her hands down onto her lap, colour filling her cheeks. How embarrassing. Did some annoying Sixth Year flirting with Potter really get to her that much? This was it - she really _was_ going mental.

"James doesn't look very happy down there, does he?" Jamie hinted, that mischievous twinkle still in her eyes.

Remus laughed. "Are you kidding me? Prongs lives for that sort of attention." He paused, narrowing his stormy grey eyes. "Well, he'd probably preferred it from somebody else, but..."

Lily meant to turn a death glare on Remus, but he was already looking away, as if deliberately stopping her from responding.

At that moment, Hannah and Regan appeared, having changed out of their Quidditch robes; Lily congratulated them as they sat down, though they didn't much need it.

The Seeker tryouts began. They progressed in alphabetical order, so first up was Julian Adams, a Fifth Year with broad shoulders muscular arms. He didn't have the build Lily usually noticed in Seekers (slim, compact, aerodynamic) but he wasn't actually too bad. He came very close to catching the Snitch several times, and finally managed to catch it after James cast a speed-decreasing charm on it. He did this with every Seeker if they took beyond a certain amount of time to catch it, and continued to slow it down until they were able to get it in their grasp. Adams set the standards quite high, and the others had trouble matching up. After some time, they were down to the last contender.

Avery mounted her broom and took off quickly and smoothly, soaring several metres into the air.

"Ready?" James called out, ready to release the Snitch.

"I'm _always _ready," Avery replied with a not-so-subtle wink. Remus snorted, Hannah and Regan burst out laughing, and the burning feeling in Lily's torso continued to escalate.

James let the Snitch go, and in a second, it was up in the air, flitting about in every direction. Avery took a moment to gather her senses, and then took off after it. Lily had to admit, this girl was _good_. She followed the Snitch in one direction and then another, coming with inches of catching it. At one point she nearly had it, but it took off in another direction; her strategies, though, were successful, and she managed to ward it in the direction that suited her, finally catching it even before James had to slow it down.

Regan let out a whistle of astonishment. "Whew, that's the best I've seen since Fabian Prewett six years ago. Our team's gonna be good this year."

Hannah nodded in agreement. "Mmm. Why does it have to be _her_, though? Everyone knows Avery Williams is a sk-"

At that moment, however, little Ellen Brooks appeared a couple of rows down, approaching them all with a big smile.

"Err... skrewt," Hannah said, and coughed. "Yes, Avery is a big, ugly skrewt..."

"Hey, Ellen," Regan called, waving to the girl as she came closer.

"Hi, Regan. Hi, Hannah," she answered. "Who are these guys?" she asked, pointing at Lily and the others.

Regan grinned. "Only our bestest friends in the entire universe!" she exclaimed gleefully, throwing her arms around Jamie, who simply looked frightened. Then she backed away and regarded Remus with disdain. "Oh, and our greatest enemy."

Hannah laughed. "This is Lily and Jamie, and that's Remus," she explained, pointing at each of them in turn.

Ellen's pale green eyes lit up in recognition. "Oh! You're the Head Girl, aren't you?"

Lily smiled, rolled her eyes and said, "Yup, that's me."

Ellen was in awe. "Wow. I want to be Head Girl when I get to seventh year! Do you have to get good marks and everything?"

Lily thought for a moment. "I suppose, but it's not only that. I'm not exactly sure what they base their decisions on." She smiled to herself at that thought; in the summer, when she'd found out Potter was going to be Head Boy, she'd been horrified, wondering what could _possibly_ bring Dumbledore to pick somebody so completely unfitting for the position.

Ellen turned her gaze to the object of Lily's pondering, and pointed. "So is he, like, your boyfriend?"

Lily went rigid with shock. Hannah snorted, Regan choked her laughter with her fist, and both Jamie and Remus smiled knowingly as Lily stuttered out an answer.

"No!" she exclaimed. "No, no, _definitely_ not."

Ellen looked disappointed at this. "Well he _should_ be," she said, folding her arms over her chest. "Anyway, I have to go to detention now, but I'll see you guys" - she aimed this at Hannah and Regan - "at training."

"Detention?" Remus asked quizzically. "What for?"

Ellen shrugged, nonchalant. "Oh, I kind of pushed a boy down the stairs yesterday. But it wasn't my fault - he got in my way!"

Hannah couldn't contain her laughter; Regan gave Ellen an encouraging pat on the back and said, "That's a good girl. Now go, and walk into detention with dignity."

They all watched her go, and once she's disappeared, Regan turned back to the others. "I think I'm going to like that girl," she said.

"Yeah, and what a Seeker, too- what's so funny, Marauder?" Hannah cut off her sentence when she looked at Remus, and as Lily followed her gaze, she saw that he was shaking with silent laughter. It took him several moments to recover enough composure to speak, but eventually he managed to answer her.

"Peter," he said simply, and then went on to explain: "I think Peter was the boy she pushed down the stairs."

Regan let out a whoop of elation. "I'm going to LOVE that girl!" she cried.

Just then, Sirius and James walked up to them. It had escaped Lily's attention, but she could see now that the tryouts were well and truly over; the balls had been packed up, and the pitch was vacant except for the odd straggler making their way out of the change rooms.

"Fraternising with the enemy, are we?" Sirius said to Remus, raising one eyebrow.

"Actually, it's called being a mole," Remus responded wisely.

Hannah gasped dramatically. "Oh no! How could you, Remus? And we told you all of our most embarrassing secrets..." She shook her head in fake disappointment, but her expression quickly changed to one of taunting. "Speaking of embarrassing," she said, looking at Sirius, "I'll bet your pride is wounded, Black. We all saw you get whooped by a second year girl."

Lily had never seen Sirius blush before, but at that moment, she thought she saw some colour rise to his cheeks. More evident than that, though, was his lividness Hannah for mentioning it.

"Shut it, Milton," he said dangerously. "That was a fluke. And anyway, she's Jolanda Brooks' daughter. Her mother's probably had her on steroids since she was three."

Hannah cast a sidelong glance at Regan, as if to say, "See? Even this turkey knows who she is." Regan stuck out her tongue in return, and Hannah turned back to Sirius. "I think you're just bitter. You know it's okay - I would be too, if I'd been training for this long and didn't have a thing to show for it."

Lily knew that was the breaking point for Sirius; Hannah had hit him where it really hurt. He snapped, yelling at her some more, and the two of them didn't stop bickering until James, who looked very tired indeed, suggested they all go back up to the castle, since it would soon be lunchtime. Lily fervently agreed, mostly because she just wanted to shut the two of them up, and they all left the Quidditch pitch together.

_Together_, Lily thought with some degree of wonder. Things were certainly changing this year. Before this past September, the Marauders and the Rogues wouldn't have been seen dead together. Well, admittedly, they were often seen as a group in the corridors, but mostly on occasions that involved bickering, pranking or, occasionally, truce-making.

Presently, none of that was going on. Well, that wasn't completely true. Hannah and Sirius kept on trying to verbally attack each other, and would have done so physically if the others hadn't held them back. But why restrain them, Lily wondered? They were supposed to hate each other. It was normal for them to argue to the death like this, because they were a Marauder and a Rogue, and they were probably the most passionately involved team members where the feud was concerned.

Then again, Lily thought with a sigh, it wasn't clear anymore what was normal and what wasn't.

* * *

The Rogues had been practising in the Room of Requirement for several weeks now. The incident with the Marauders had done practically nothing to deter them - while it made them a little uneasy, they persisted on the assumption that, after the events of that day, the Marauders wouldn't dare return to the Room. It was naive to make such a guess, but really, there was nowhere else for them to practise this forbidden "art," if you could call it that.

"Regan, clear your mind!" Hannah ordered, frustrated at the lack of progress they'd seen so far. "I know you're thinking about Pettigrew, but you have to tear your thoughts away from beautiful face and CONCENTRATE!"

Regan glared at her. "Okay, maybe I am thinking about Pettigrew, but I'm plotting his murder. There's a difference."

"Not now, you idiot!" shouted Hannah, whacking Regan only semi-gently on the back of the head. "Don't you understand? This is going nowhere! We need to figure out how to do this soon, or... or..."

"Or what?" Lily asked, raising her eyebrows.

"Yeah," Jamie put in, "could you remind us why it is we're doing this in the first place?"

Hannah groaned, crossing her arms and turning her back to them as she began to pace around the oddly landscaped room. "I don't know," Hannah admitted, but there was still an edge to her voice, a strange sort of hopeful sound, that indicated she really _did_ know, but perhaps wasn't willing to explain it.

"We're Marauder-hunting, right?" Lily prompted, walking up behind Hannah. "Since we saw them attacking - well, being attacked by - that tree, you think we should stalk them, so to speak. And it'll be easier to do that in animal form. Am I right?"

Hannah sighed and nodded, but it was clear that the extent of Lily's understanding wasn't doing it for her.

"I just...," she began, but trailed off uncertainly. The others exchanged a concerned glance. A few moments later, Hannah picked up where she left off. "I just think we need something to do as a group. It seems like we haven't been that tight as a team lately, and that bugs me. Remember when we were younger, and getting back at the Marauders was the only thing we ever thought about?"

Lily did remember. In fact, she was fond of those days - the days of plotting and hilarious revenge - but she didn't have a problem with the fact that they'd matured. Hannah, however, seemed exactly the opposite.

"I remember," said Regan. "Like the time we skipped the Halloween feast to trash the boys' dormitory. That was awesome. And McGonagall thought it was the fourth years who did it, too."

Lily remembered that very well. They'd flooded whole room with about six inches of water, replaced the soap in the bathrooms with solidified hippogriff dung (the boys had wondered for weeks why they smelled so utterly repulsive) and turned the bed curtains irreversibly pink. Well, almost irreversibly - they'd gotten Dumbledore in, and, of course, he could fix anything. Still, the horrified exclamations and near-screaming they'd heard through the door when the Marauders returned from the Halloween feast were impossible to forget.

Jamie giggled. "Yeah, and when we used to lock them in broom cupboards on the way to class," she reminisced, smiling at the memory.

There was lengthy silence as they recalled the good old days, when they were thick as thieves, and when they were a solid force against the Marauders. Things hadn't changed so much in that regard, Lily thought, except where the Marauders were concerned. Everyone had matured, as Hannah had said, and so things weren't so black and white anymore. Take Lily and James for an example - just one year ago, they'd fought like cats and dogs (or, to use a more appropriate analogy, one could say they'd fought like Hannah and Sirius), and whenever Potter had shown any affection for her, it was a joke, and his sole aim was to annoy her. Now, she wasn't sure where they stood, but it was somewhere in that blurry region; the division wasn't so distinct anymore.

"I don't want to get all soft about it," Hannah said, her voice tight. "But... it's kind of annoying me, the way things have started off this year. It doesn't even seem like we're in this together anymore. Black still hates my guts, and I hate his, but... things have changed for you guys. I wish they would change for none - or all - of us."

"Hey," Regan said when Hannah finished. "Nothing's changed between me and that dumbass Wormbutt. We're still in this together, against those idiots - all or nothing."

"It's not you I'm talking about, Regan," Hannah responded with a shake of her head, and cast a sad smile toward Lily and Jamie. "Things really _have_ changed for some of us. This year hasn't been the same so far. Everything's getting too serious, but then again, it also seems as if we're not taking the anti-Marauder battle as seriously as we used to."

Regan smirked. "Yes, _Sirius_ is always the issue, isn't he?"

Hannah rolled her eyes and gave Regan a dark look. "Actually, he is. He's just a big fat problem in general. But you know what I mean."

Lily took this opportunity to step in. At first, she wasn't certain what to say in order to reassure Hannah. Things _had_ changed, it was true; Lily wasn't going to deny it any longer. But the Rogues, as friends, and as partners in crime? She didn't feel as if that had changed at all. Maybe their feelings toward the target had changed in some cases, but the team spirit was still there - or so it seemed to Lily. Hannah, apparently, had different ideas.

"Han," Lily started, "maybe things _have_ changed, but we're still the Rogues. And... I don't even know if I even _like_ James." Hannah snorted at this, and Lily bluntly ignored her. She could feel herself becoming more and more confused as she tried to explain her feelings, at which point she concluded that talking about it wasn't helping at all. Still, she went on. "It's not definite. They're still the enemy, and we're still a team. I don't know about you, but I'm still up for this Animagus plan, even though it's probably going to get us into _huge_ trouble..."

Hannah smiled. "Yup, definitely the old Lily."

Jamie stepped forward and spoke shyly. "Lily's right. I'm up for it too." She swallowed, her expression becoming suddenly hard. "And don't worry about what I said in that Truth or Dare game back then... I'm one hundred percent over Remus."

She received doubtful, concerned looks at this, but she averted her eyes, signalling that she didn't want to talk about. Lily and the others respected her wishes, and Regan quickly changed the topic.

"Okay, we're getting sidetracked," she said loudly. "Time to get back to work. We're going to get it right this time, you hear me?"

Hannah nodded fervently; her mood had changed visibly, and it seemed she was reassured, at least for the time being. "Right," she said very seriously, but with a smile on her face. "Everybody spread out, and empty your minds."

"Should be easy for you, Regan," Lily said jokingly. Her eyes were closed by this point, but she could sense that Regan was making a face at her.

The minutes went by as the Rogues attempted the transformation for the umpteenth time, and the ceiling, presumably charmed much the same way as the one in the Great Hall, grew darker as they stood perfectly still, each in their own little chamber of concentration.

Lily focused her every thought on one thing, as hard as it was. She thought of that nimble, sleek female deer, thought of what it would feel like to walk on four legs and have that stunted little tail, to have ears on the top of her head and a long and dainty nose... She thought of the colour, caramel and auburn with a glazing of bronze, and the softness of the fur.

Then, the most amazing thing happened. Lily had grown accustomed to magic of all sorts in her time in the wizarding world, but nothing could have prepared her for this. It was an entirely different sort of magic, and it sent a shivering sensation up her spine and out into her every nerve. She could feel it - she was about to transform. And not just partially, either. The feeling was so grand, so utterly complete, that she knew right then that she was about to make a major breakthrough. She tensed, surprisingly ready for the transition, and then...

A scream.

She opened her eyes, focus broken in an instant. The world around her seemed suddenly different, though it hadn't changed since she closed her eyes.

Well, one thing had changed. Oh, yes - this was definitely _not_ normal.

Hannah stood across from Lily, shaky hands covering her mouth, eyes wide with amazement and a little bit of fear. The space next to her, where Regan had stood several minutes before, was empty; on Hannah's head, a scarlet macaw was perched, its chest feathers proudly puffed out, its claws grasping tendrils of yellow-blonde hair.

"Oh, Merlin!" Lily gasped, expelling a little laugh of delight. "She did it!"

Jamie, who'd opened her eyes as well (Lily noticed, with a fleeting shock, that the silver tail was back, and that she'd sprouted ears and sharp claws) seemed to have lost all power of speech. She stared disbelievingly at the bird on Hannah's head.

Breaking into the silence, Hannah suddenly recovered from her state of astonishment and cried out. "Bloody Hell, Regan, get off my head!"

The Regan bird unhooked its claws and soared upward, circling several times before descending once again. It landed on the Flechbert's Animagus book, perched not far away on its old-fashioned stand, and began doing little head bobs as it danced across the pages.

Hannah suddenly started clapping. "Yes! I knew we could do it!" she exclaimed, giving Lily and Jamie celebratory high-fives. "One down, three to go! Well, two and a half, it looks like," she added, noticing Jamie's newly sprouted appendages. "Wait a sec... Regan, are you able to change back?"

The bird stopped moving, cocked its head, and stood still for some time.

"Well?" Hannah urged.

Regan flapped her wings and flew over to one of the armchairs in the corner of the room, dropping down behind it. There was a lengthy time in which nothing more happened, but finally, Regan's (fully human) head popped up over the back of the armchair.

"Erm, yes, I forgot about this part. Would somebody be a gem and toss me my robes?"

Hannah laughed; Jamie got out her wand and levitated the bundle of robes over to Regan, who caught them gratefully and ducked down behind the chair once again.

* * *

Ten minutes later, the Rogues were on their way back to the common room, chattering excitedly about the progress they'd made. They kept their voices down, though it was difficult not to be enthusiastic after making such great headway in one day.

"What did it feel like, Regan?" Jamie asked. "I mean, I've done it partially, so I get some of it... but to transform completely?"

Regan shook her head in wonder. "Weird, I'll tell you. Like, _really_ weird. But then, once it's happened, it's pretty awesome. Except for the whole changing back part." She blushed slightly at the memory.

"It does feel weird," Lily added with a nod. When the others looked at her questioningly, she explained: "I mean, I wouldn't know about the actual transition, but I felt it starting to happen. Like, I _knew_ I was about to turn."

"Yeah," said Regan. "That's what it feels like. Too bad you got interrupted."

Lily shrugged. "Next time, I suppose. Anyway, what's the plan?"

"Yeah," Jamie said, "once we've all got it, when are we going to follow them? And how do we even know they're going back?"

Hannah looked thoughtful. "Well, we don't necessarily have to follow them back to the same place. It'll just be handy to have a way of tailing them without being noticed - well, except for _you_, Regan. Why'd you have to pick a Goddamn tropical bird?"

"Hey!" Regan exclaimed defensively. "Don't dis the bird. I'll have you know it's ten times more awesome than your Animagus!"

Hannah looked like she was preparing a retort, but stopped mid-thought and frowned. "Well, I suppose I'll agree with that, seeing as mine's sort of... nonexistent. I haven't even gotten close yet. I wonder why..."

"Don't worry," Lily reassured her. "You'll get there, Hannah."

They were approaching a corner at this point in time, and right as Lily finished speaking, two figures popped out - rather quickly, in fact - from around the corner. It was James and Sirius, both somewhat out of breath.

Sirius, evidently having heard the last line of the Rogues' conversation, quipped, "She'll get where? Oh, are you talking about Fat Camp?" He drew in a sharp, apologetic sort of breath through his teeth. "Sorry, but I think there's a point where they reject you because you're too far gone for them to do anything about it."

"Oh yeah?" Hannah shot back. "Well you got into Hogwarts, didn't you?"

Lily didn't enjoy watching them fight, but she had to admit, that was a good call. Even James burst out laughing at his best friend's expense, and Regan let out a loud "Oooooh" while Sirius looked as if he would very much like to murder somebody - preferably Hannah. Before he had the chance to make himself a wanted man, however, Remus came around the corner, panting.

"Quick!" he exclaimed breathlessly, slowing down only momentarily to warn the others. "Filch is coming! Wormtail's lagging, but that'll only hold him off for so long."

"Oops, gotta go," James said in a panic. "Nice catching up, Rogues." With that he ran off, dragging Sirius by the arm.

Lily exchanged a wary glance with the others. "If Filch is coming for them, does that mean..."

Jamie checked her watch; she jerked her head up, wide-eyed, and informed them squeakily, "It's past curfew. We should have been back in the common room an hour ago."

They needed no more prompting than that; almost simultaneously, the four Rogues took off down the corridor, taking every short cut they knew of, and made for the common room at top speed. At one point they heard a shout of "STUDENTS OUT OF BED! AHA, I'VE CAUGHT YOU NOW, BOY!" and a helpless squeal, presumably coming from Peter. Without breaking her stride, Regan let out a jubilant "Yes!". Unfortunately, Filch heard this - they could tell from the frantic footsteps and heavy wheezing that he was on their tails again.

Still, they managed to outrun him, and dove through the portrait hole just in time, slamming it shut behind them. They were unaware, however, of the three bodies lying in a gasping heap on the floor just inside. They stumbled over various body parts and fell; there were numerous grunts as four more bodies were added to the disorderly pile.

At a nearby coffee table, a scared-looking first year looked up from the letter he was writing, stared at them fearfully, and then gathered his things and ran off in a hurry to his dormitory.

Lily was the first one to start laughing. She wasn't sure what was so funny about the situation - in fact, it was rather uncomfortable - but soon, the others joined in with her. It was just so typical; the Marauders and the Rogues causing mayhem in the middle of the night, narrowly escaping punishment, scaring innocent firsties and ending up in a completely ridiculous situation - all the while with Peter left behind to suffer at the clutches of Filch.

Lily smiled to herself. Maybe things hadn't changed as much as she'd thought they had.

* * *

**Phew. That was a long one. The longest yet, in fact - which I hope did something to make up for the wait.  
As you can see, I went kind of overboard torturing dear old Pete in this chapter, but I can't help myself. It's addictive. Really. Try it sometime and you'll know exactly what I mean.  
I know this was kind of a filler chapter, but I was getting impatient and decided it was best to fast-forward through the boring stuff so I can get to the BIG, MYSTERIOUS EVENT (which will henceforth be referred to as the BME) which will be happening soon after. I think there will be one more chapter sort of like this one, with nothing really huge happening, but I can guarantee some more intense "Lames" in Chapter Twenty-Two (my double lucky number! YAY! -- don't get it? Read my profile) and, if all goes to plan, BIG DRAMA in the chapter after that.  
****I don't deserve any reviews after making you wait so long, but I don't suppose you might forgive me just this once? Pretty please?  
****Once again, you all rock. (Err, no, I'm not using praise as bribery... What on Earth are you talking about?)  
****  
~PrincessEarth**


	22. Werewolves Are People Too

**Plot:** The infamous Marauders weren't alone in their love for pranking. In fact, they often had their butts kicked by a bunch of girls. Now, this is it. Seventh year. Four girls, four boys. Two opposing pranking teams. One hell of a battle to be won.

**Disclaimer: **Harry Potter and all its characters and themes are the property of J.K. Rowling. The only characters I own are Jamie, Hannah, Regan and a few minors. Other than that, it's purely fanfic.

**Chapter Notes:** I think I owe you guys another big, fat APOLOGY (that big and fat enough for you?) for my laziness and apparent inability to pull a chapter together in any less than six months. To be honest, I did move halfway around the planet in that time frame, but still, I'm pathetic. So I've decided not to promise quick updates anymore because... Well, clearly that method doesn't work very well for me.

I'd like to thank two reviewers in particular – MissaRissa and Fae Thatcher – for really encouraging me to get this chapter going in the first place. Sorry for disappearing off the face of the planet. You guys are awesome. In fact, you're all awesome. Reviews are my main source of support for this story, so here's a big to everyone who's taken the time to leave one for me, even when I haven't updated in who-knows-how-long. I very much appreciate your opinions.

Okay, I have good news and bad news regarding the actual chapter. On the bright side, half of the things I wanted to include in this chapter didn't fit, so the next chapter will be pretty easy for me to write. On the not-so-bright side, it means that the big, dramatic one will have to wait until number 24. Brace yourselves for that one, guys. It's gonna be HUGE. (If I can pull it off, that is. We'll see.)

As usual, I seem to have missed my cue to SHUT UP and let you get on with the chapter.

I apologise for the incredibly lame title.

Otherwise, enjoy.

* * *

**Chapter Twenty-Two - Werewolves Are People Too**

There was an indescribable sense of finality and satisfaction in the last sentence of an essay. No matter the subject, whether dull or (in very few cases) vaguely enjoyable, it was always a relief to reach that point where there were only a few words left to write - ten, twelve, maybe more - and, after those few words, the prospect of _freedom_ (or, at least, temporary freedom)_. _They didn't have to be deep, clever or especially insightful - in fact, if you weren't aiming high, they didn't even have to make sense. All that was required of that final sentence was that it ended with a full stop.

This particular full stop was vigorously stabbed into a length of parchment by a pale but tense hand, scratching so deep that the point of the quill nearly tore right through the parchment. Lily, who, in fact, was _always _aiming high, exhaled with relief, thrust her quill aside in an uncharacteristic display of carelessness, and gathered up her essay. No, that final sentence didn't matter in the slightest - not now, anyway. Later, she might regret having hastily scrawled down such utter rubbish, but at this point in time, all that mattered was that she got this essay to Professor Marsh _immediately_.

It wasn't like Lily to run late with her schoolwork. She'd built up a flawless reputation as Miss Diligent, always finishing her work before the due date and, of course, leaving time for proofreading. But with everything that had been going on lately - the unmanageable workloads from other subjects, the Marauder-Rogue scuffles, the Animagus scheme - punctuality had slipped out of Lily's grasp. She and the Rogues had spent uncountable hours in the Room of Requirement, practising until they were so exhausted that they could barely keep their eyes open. What time they didn't use for developing their latest plot against the Marauders was spent in the Common Room, where, at present, it was rather difficult to get any work done, what with patriotic Gryffindors running around chattering about the upcoming Quidditch game (the first of the season), first years exchanging animated tales of their first few flying lessons, and other such distractions.

To be honest, though, Lily couldn't blame her lack of focus entirely on the firsties and those die-hard Quidditch fanatics. It was her own thoughts that were taking her mind off the task at hand, and she was frustrated with herself for it. Why had her life picked this year, of all years, to suddenly become more interesting? ("Interesting" was a strange way to put it; Lily thought "complicated" probably summed it up more precisely.) Why couldn't her brain have waited until later to go all ADD on her?

With all these built-up roadblocks, Lily had, for the first time in her life, been unable to finish an assignment on time. It wasn't even a particularly difficult one - sixteen inches on the place of werewolves in wizarding society and their difficulty in gaining acceptance and understanding. They'd done plenty of research already in class - so much that Lily knew practically everything there was to know on the topic. But with this many things invading her thoughts, the ethics regarding semi-human magical beasts weren't something she could focus on.

"Please," she'd said desperately on Friday, grasping at the last (and very unreliable) straw, "I just need one more night to finish it. We've had so much homework from all the other subjects, and with Head Girl duties and everything... I'll bring it to you personally tomorrow morning." She'd stood still after that, watching Professor Marsh's eyes bugging out of their sockets. Whether it was with anger or astonishment, she wasn't sure - either way, it was a very ugly emotion, and Marsh's face distorted to the point where Lily actually wanted to cower, or run away as fast as she possibly could.

"Very well," Marsh grunted. "Since it is your first offense, I will give you the extra time. But if that essay isn't on my desk at nine o'clock sharp tomorrow morning, there will be _serious_ repercussions, Miss Evans."

Lily could practically hear Marsh as a cinematic Muggle debt collector - "Money by tomorrow, Smith, or I'll kill your family." Lily shuddered at the comparison, mainly because it was so alarmingly accurate. With that deep, blunt tone, hideous expression, and not a single ounce of sympathy for anyone in her wake, Lily sometimes found it hard to believe that Marsh was almost sixty-five years old... and a woman.

In any case, Lily was indescribably relieved after exiting Marsh's stuffy classroom, and hurried back to the Common Room to start work on the essay - yes, she'd done more than just neglect an assignment; she'd also lied to a teacher about its current degree of completion.

"Cool it, Lils. You look like you're going to explode or something," Hannah (who had a far-from-perfect track record where assignments were concerned) continued to warn Lily when she went into one of her notorious Oh-Merlin-I'm-going-to-disappoint-a-teacher panic attacks. Still, Lily found it difficult to heed that advice, and stressed about it until she'd written the last sentence the next morning, after snatching three or four hours of sleep in between legs of essay-writing.

And that was how she found herself hurrying down the stairs at quarter to nine on a Saturday morning, Defence Against the Dark Arts essay in hand, complete with what was quite possibly the worst finishing sentence in academic history: "Werewolves are people too."

She wasn't sure what had made her write that. Well, come to think of it, she _was_ sure - when it came down to the last half hour in which she could legitimately submit her essay and actually not lose marks, anything went. Even a four-word cliché that hardly summed up what she had written.

She took the stairs two at time as she descended, willing to tempt fate in this desperate bid to save her academic record. She stumbled once or twice, but managed to right herself and skip the last three stairs with a tremendous leap. She made the distance easily, and was quite impressed with herself - until she rammed, still airborne, into a passing figure.

Somehow, both she and the figure managed to remain upright, but she inadvertently grabbed the person's sleeve in order to stop herself from falling.

"Whoa!" they exclaimed in an all-too-familiar voice. "Evans? Are you okay? More importantly, why the hell are you in such a hurry on a Saturday?"

Lily, still in shock, was too amazed - mainly at the fact that she hadn't fallen on her face - to even look at the innocent-passerby-turned-punching-bag. Then she realised that two firm hands had gripped her elbows in order to keep her on her feet, and she looked nervously up at her victim/rescuer's face.

Of _course_. It was always had to be him.

She coughed, averting her eyes from James's amused hazel ones, and twisted out of his grasp. "No time for apologies, Potter. Gotta go. Bye!" she tossed over her shoulder as she hurried across the common room to the portrait hole. She could tell that she was blushing furiously, so she didn't look back as she exited the room; she had a feeling, though, that if she did, she would see Potter smirking at her from near the stairs.

Come to think of it, what _was_ he doing, lurking so close to the bottom of the girls' staircase?

Lily dropped the essay in Marsh's office with as much urgency as possible, and was relieved to add it to a pile of equally tardy assignments. She didn't linger, though Marsh looked like she might say something to her, because she didn't want to think about what she had written, and how the teacher might react when she read it. As she crossed the corridor on the way back to the common room, she smacked her forehead with one palm and muttered to herself, "What the bloody hell was I thinking? 'Werewolves are people too'..."

"What?"

It was a mild, hesitant voice that came from behind her, and she spun around in surprise to find its owner not too many paces from where she stood. She blushed for the second time in about ten minutes, realising she'd been talking to herself in the corridor, where there would obviously be other people around to hear. Though what Remus Lupin was doing in the halls at barely nine o'clock in the morning, she had no idea.

"Err... sorry," she said, facepalming again. "It's just... I'm an idiot."

Remus regarded her strangely for a moment before shrugging. "Okay," he said.

"What, you're going to agree with me just like that?" she asked jokingly. Then she narrowed her eyes in thought. "Wait, what are _you_ doing out here so early on a Saturday morning?"

Looking at her as if she really _were_ an idiot, he paused for a few seconds, as if expecting her to suddenly remember something. When she continued to look at him blankly, he said, "You really didn't notice be walking behind you the whole way?"

Lily's eyes shot open. Oh, Merlin. What else had she done without realising she was being watched? She folded her arms and demanded of Remus, "Well, what are you, a stalker?"

This time, Remus just laughed. "Hell, Lily, were you wearing horse-blinders or something? I went to Professor Marsh to hand in my late essay. I came out of the common room just after you did, and I was going to say something, but you were walking so fast that I figured it best not to disturb you. Didn't you see me in Marsh's office, though? I was standing right next to you."

Lily was confused. "Err... no," she admitted, brushing the hair out of her face. Then she yawned. "Sorry. I guess I'm just out of it. My homework-to-sleep ratio's been a little off kilter lately, you know?"

"Oh, I know," said Remus, sounding genuinely sympathetic. "So hey, why was your essay late? I thought you were like... the perfect student."

Lily glared at him, not particularly pleased at the thought that this one little slip-up might tarnish her reputation for good. "Shut up. I've just had _way_ too much going on lately." She decided it was best not to delve into _what_ she'd had going on lately, lest she give anything away about the Rogues' newest plot, so she turned the accusations on him. "And I could say the exact same thing to you, Lupin," she challenged.

She regretted it as soon as she said it, because Remus's face turned inexplicably dark as he pondered over his answer. It looked like she'd touched on some sort of tender spot, like she'd mentioned something that he was too uncomfortable to talk about. She didn't know what to say - how could such a simple question be so intrusive?

Finally, Remus responded. "I had some trouble with my argument. I guess it was kind of... a difficult topic," he said vaguely, and shrugged again. "And I guess my brain's been clogged up with other stuff, too." He smiled almost sadly.

"Yeah," Lily said slowly, looking awkwardly at the floor. She wasn't sure how to respond to that. In actual fact, it wasn't _that_ difficult a topic compared to the others they'd been given; "Comment on the ethics of using Unforgiveable Curses against dark forces in times of war" had been Marsh's favourite (because it was the biggest brain-buster, of course). In fact, Marsh seemed to have a thing for ethics, which was a death sentence for her students; she was a batty old lady set in her old-fashioned ways, and apparently, those who didn't agree with her deserved an automatic T.

"Anyway, shouldn't we head back?" Remus said suddenly.

Lily looked at the portrait hole, less than five metres away. Wow. She really _was_ out of it. "Oh, right," she said, shaking her head in an attempt to rid it of this dreadful fuzziness. It didn't work.

Lily walked forward and uttered the password; the Fat Lady yawned, grumbled something unintelligible about "early risers" and "no respect", and grudgingly let them pass through. As Lily entered, Remus just behind her, she noticed that the common room was empty. Well, almost empty. There was James, off in a corner, writing something...

And two figures on one of the couches, locked in a tight embrace.

Lily didn't want to believe it at first, but that long, golden hair was unmistakable.

"Jamie?" she said in disbelief.

Potter, in the corner, half-turned at her words; Lily would have taken the time to find this comical ("Oh, does your mummy call you that at home?") if she hadn't been preoccupied. On the couch, the figures were startled. They pulled quickly apart, both flushed bright red, and Lily could see now that one of them was, in fact, Jamie. The other was Frank Longbottom.

Frank looked confused, as if wondering why Lily's surprised outburst was necessary. Then it dawned on Lily - Jamie's downward glances every time the subject of her relationship with Frank came up, her dodging the subject, her confusing declaration that she "wasn't closing any doors just yet"...

She was sure that her astonishment and sudden revelation was evident in her expression, but it was too difficult to suppress it. She was stunned, and, frankly - no pun intended - a little insulted. Jamie never had ended things with Frank. In fact, despite making it clear to her friends that she had little to no interest in the boy, she'd bound herself to him even further, deepening their relationship and making it even harder for herself to get out if she had to. It made sense that Frank looked so puzzled right now - as far as he knew, Lily was aware of their relationship, so there shouldn't be a problem with walking into the common room to be confronted with the sight of them making out. Even so, Frank was the kind of person who felt bad for anything - and he looked a little guilty now as Lily gawked at them both.

Jamie looked even more so. Her hair, loose around her shoulders, had fallen into her face; as she looked at her knees, she sheepishly tucked it behind her ear and straightened one of her unseasonal spaghetti straps.

For some reason, anger flared up in Lily's chest. How could Jamie have lied to her? How could they be best friends for seven years and still not be entirely honest with each other? More than that, though, Lily knew that what Jamie was doing was incredibly, _unbearably_ stupid. She couldn't believe she would go to these lengths to prove whatever it was she was trying to prove.

Ironically, it wasn't until right then that she remembered who was standing beside her.

Remus's face was as cold and hard as slate, but not as blank. Hurt was etched into its every line, rage filling his narrowed, stormy eyes, confusion painted on his brow. Lily felt a pang of sympathy as she saw his hands begin the motion of clenching into fists, but fall limp at his sides when he (seemingly) thought better of it.

Lily considered pulling one of those classic "Can I talk to you for a minute?" things on Jamie, but she knew that if she spoke now, it would be through gritted teeth. For poor, oblivious Frank's case, at least, she had to give the illusion that everything was normal. She would chew Jamie out later if this anger lasted that long - which it probably would, thanks to her lack of sleep and recent wave of intense stress.

Also, Lily felt like she was intruding on something private. She felt like this maybe wasn't her business after all. Initially, she'd suspected it was that awkward feeling of invading a couple's privacy, seeing them so intimately together when they were trying - well, rather pathetically - not to be seen. Now, she realised it wasn't that at all. This had nothing to do with her, if you excluded Jamie's violating the best friend code. This, Lily could see now, was between Jamie, Frank and Remus. She'd read about love triangles before - hell, there'd been plenty within the walls of Hogwarts - but she'd never seen one so blatantly first hand.

Lily realised she'd been silent for a long time, so she tried to think of something to say.

"Err, sorry," she said, pushing her hair back from her face and startling herself with how James-like the nervous gesture was. (Was he rubbing off on her? She was going to have to do something about that...) "I sort of... uh... forgot you guys were together," she said dumbly. She was telling an outright lie here, so, for honesty's sake, she tried to add an element of truth to her excuse. "I only got like two hours of sleep last night. Forgive me." With that, she got out of there as fast as she possibly could. Her drowsiness took her to the dormitory staircase, where she promptly tripped over the first stair and whacked her knees on the cold marble. James snorted from his discrete location in the corner.

"Shut up, Potter," she spat, and continued on her way.

When she reached the top of the staircase, she exhaled in relief. She wanted nothing more than to collapse onto her bed, fall asleep, and not wake up until the year was over. Maybe she could create some sort of Lily replica (How much could you do with Boggarts these days, anyway?) to do all her assignments for her and figure out what to do about James, and about Jamie's strange rebellion, and Hannah's questionable motives... and, well, mostly just James.

Before she could put any part of her plan into effect, Lily looked over to her right and caught sight of something that, quite possibly, would delay its execution. Rosalie Williams sat on the bed closest to the entrance, her arm around a sobbing Alice Hanby.

Lily froze in the doorway, once again experiencing that feeling of being completely out of place. This time it was intensified by the fact that, when she walked into the dormitory, both girls stopped whispering and looked up at her (Alice with exceptionally red eyes).

Lily sighed in frustration. "What, do you want me to leave or something?" Lily didn't mean to sound so snappy, but again, she was tired. The relationship between the Rogues and the two other seventh year Gryffindor girls had never really extended beyond polite; they were on good terms, but they tended to get on each other's nerves every so often, even if nobody said so straight out. Alice and Rosalie had often accused the Rogues of being too exclusive and considering themselves superior; on the other hand, the two of them were an extremely tight-knit pair of childhood friends - sort of like Hannah and Regan, only they were all secrets and whispering, while the latter laid everything out in the open as a result of their rambunctious personalities.

Right now, Rosalie looked vaguely sympathetic as she spoke, but not entirely friendly. "Sorry. This is kind of private. Could you give us ten minutes or so?"

Lily barely had the energy to shrug. "Sure," she said, and turned to leave, stifling a yawn. Just then, she realised something. "Hey, just before I go - where are Hannah and Regan?"

Rosalie sounded impatient as she said, "Blondie's been in the bathroom for about an hour, hogging all the hot water. And the other one said something stupid about climbing up to the roof." She rolled her eyes at that last part. Lily knew exactly what that meant, though Rosalie was totally oblivious; ever since achieving her first transformation, Regan had become rather fond of "stretching her wings", as she liked to call it, in the mornings. Lily had no idea where she got to during these rounds, but she was admittedly a little envious of her friend's new ability, and wondered why she'd chosen such a pathetically fragile, wimpy animal for her own Animagus form.

"Uh, okay, thanks," Lily said, and headed back down the stairs.

She was halfway down when she realised how cold it was, and wished she'd grabbed a sweater from her trunk before disappearing. Now it was too late; she'd been ordered to make herself scarce by Rosalie and Alice, and she'd vowed to do the same for Jamie and her small, unfortunate entourage. She was going to have to brave the crisp autumn air in an old white t-shirt and jeans. She could always stalk up and down the corridors for a couple of hours, but at least she could sit down outside without attracting attention. And sitting down was a must, because she feared her legs were soon going to give out from exhaustion.

When she got to the bottom of the stairs, she was surprised to find the common room completely empty. Well, again, not _completely _empty. This time, there was no Jamie and no Frank. Even Remus had left, but James remained in his corner, pondering over a piece of parchment with what looked like deep concentration.

"Where'd everyone go?" Lily mumbled, a little confused. After all, it had only been about a minute since she'd left them alone down here.

James looked up abruptly, as if not expecting to see anybody there, and told her, "Remus kind of grunted and walked off, but I'm not sure about the other two. Probably went to find some real privacy."

Lily frowned at that, although she wasn't sure why. Frank was a good guy, and she didn't have _that_ much of a problem with Jamie seeing him. It was her motives that Lily was concerned about, and the fact that this whole business just didn't seem right.

"What are you doing back down here already?" James asked, his eyebrows knitted together. Lily wasn't sure, but she thought he sounded almost concerned. "You looked like a total zombie before. Scratch that - you _still_ look like a zombie."

Lily was almost too tired to retort. "Apparently I'm not wanted up there," she said, though it came out muffled thanks to another yawn. "And hey, that hurt."

James shrugged. "It's true, though. You should go back to sleep if you're that tired."

"Can't," Lily said with a shake of her head. "Exiled, remember?" she said, pointing back at the staircase. "'Sides, I'm going outside... fresh air or something..."

James looked somewhat amused, probably because at her inability to form complete sentences. Feeling way too sluggish even to think, Lily shuffled off toward the portrait hole. Halfway there, she noticed the couch. It looked so tempting right now, when all she wanted to do was lie down. So soft and red, and so much closer to a bed than anything else she was likely to find around here...

Before she knew it, she'd crossed the distance to the couch and collapsed into the velvety cushions. She drifted off quickly, not noticing the quiet laughter from across the room, and was soon very deeply asleep. She didn't have the capacity to dream in this state - but, had she been able, there was no doubt she would have been dreaming of the boy in the corner.

* * *

James received the letter late on Friday night. His family owl, Soot (named as such thanks to a disastrous episode involving the owl, several important parcels and a large fireplace), was very impatient, and so she often came to visit James in the common room when she had something to deliver. This time, she'd tapped her beak incessantly on the window until one of the first years noticed and alerted James, calling him "Mister Head Boy" and sending Sirius into a fit of manic laughter.

Soot, whose feathers were almost all black, came barrelling in when James opened the window, landed on his head, bit him several times and proceeded to attack her own foot until James managed to snip the string for her and remove the envelope. She sat on the windowsill until he fed her a piece of bacon that Peter had "saved" in his pocket from breakfast, and flew away looking more like a bat than an owl as she zigzagged across the night sky.

When he began to read, the first few sentences made his heart sink.

_James_,

_There has been a brutal Death Eater attack on your father's Auror troupe._

_He took the brunt of the attack - at least six Cruciatus curses to the chest._

_In critical condition, but expected to make at least a partial recovery._

_Will keep you updated when there is time - don't fret too much._

_No place is safe anymore, James. Please take care of yourself._

_Hope all is well,_

_Mum_

He'd read it through twice, just to be sure he'd read it all correctly. Afterward, he was too stunned to do anything but sit down and stare at the letter without actually taking in any of what was written. His father was one of the strongest Aurors - one of the strongest men - James had ever known. The fact that he could be taken down so easily by a hoard of Death Eaters was, in short, disturbing. James had always thought his father could take on anything, but clearly, he'd been wrong. He was only expected to make a partial recovery - that meant he probably wouldn't be working as an Auror again.

He read the last part of his mother's letter once more. "_No place is safe anymore, James. Please take care of yourself_." He knew what that meant, and the thought of it chilled his core - it meant that times were getting dangerous, that Voldemort and his army were on the rise, and that there would soon be attacks _much _worse than the one on his father and the other Aurors.

"'Sup, Prongsie?" a booming voice had said from his left. He looked up to find Sirius standing there, holding a butterbeer in one hand (no doubt skilfully smuggled from the kitchens) and a daintier hand in the other. The hand belonged to a tall black-haired girl who James didn't recognise by name, but who he'd seen in passing several times. She was slender and exotic-looking, with thick eyelashes and a sharply angled jaw. James thought she might be a Ravenclaw.

"Uh... nothing," James replied, folding up the letter and shoving it back into its envelope. There was no way he would hide something like this from his best friend, but there was also no way he was going to blurt it out when he had an unfamiliar girl practically hanging off his arm. He gave Sirius a reprimanding glance, but only in jest, and tipped his head at the girl. "She's not in Gryffindor."

Sirius shrugged guiltily. "But you're going to let it slide like a good little Head Boy, aren't you, James?" The girl giggled at this, even though it wasn't particularly funny. James wondered if she was a new love interest or the beginning of an all-too-obsessive Sirius Fan Club.

James sighed. "I guess so. But don't let anybody else see you." He added as an afterthought, raising an eyebrow as a sort of warning, "And that means no going upstairs."

"Fine. I'm just giving her the grand tour, anyway - you know, showing her where all the cool people live."

Sirius and the girl walked off, the latter leaving a trail of brainless giggling in her wake, and James was left alone. It dawned on him that Sirius hadn't so much as introduced the girl he was with. Come to think of it, it was likely that even Sirius didn't know her name, let alone anything about her. That was how it went these days - he put even less effort into his flings than he used to, mostly because (as James suspected) they were just meaningless distractions. He knew Sirius had been troubled lately, and confused as hell, just like the rest of the Marauders seemed to be. Well, all except Peter - but Peter was always confused, so there was nothing novel in pointing that out.

The following morning, after sleeping not so restfully, James came downstairs with the intention of writing a letter in reply to his mother's. He wasn't sure what to say - his mother was all manners and formalities, having married into one of England's most well off wizarding families (and a Pureblood one at that), so her letters were always short, sweet, and straight to the point. James knew he should express his concern, but trying to envisage the exact words proved rather tricky.

When he sat down in a remote corner of the common room to write, he realised he'd run out of ink. He could go up to the boys' dormitories to get some more from his trunk, but that would risk waking somebody up - and, just now, he didn't particularly feel like spending his morning entertaining Sirius.

The convenient thing about Hogwarts was that, as a castle, it provided many nooks, crannies, shortcuts, and other hidden places - most of which very few people had discovered. It was nothing short of a playground for the Marauders, who'd probably found more of the castle's secrets than any other students in the last few decades. James knew for a fact that the castle had a few hidden compartments in the walls where ink or quills would appear whenever somebody had the need for extra school supplies. Their apparition worked something like the Room of Requirement - one only had to walk past, thinking deeply about their need for stationery, and a little hollowed out spot in the wall would open.

James knew where most of these were located, so finding them wasn't a problem. What _was_ a problem was that the only one nearby was located in the stairwell that lead to the girls' dormitories.

This wasn't usually much trouble for the Marauders. They could overcome the enchantment on the stairwells (which, quite frankly, James would have expected to be a little more foolproof) simply by transforming, because it was designed to keep out male _humans_, not animals, and Animagus magic was very strong.

It wasn't even nine yet, and it was a Saturday - how likely was he to get caught at this hour? He looked around him, comforted by the confirmation that the common room was still empty. He made his way slowly over to the stairwell, weighing up his chances - and that was when he was hit by a flying redhead.

She came as if out of nowhere, though he knew very well she had come from the staircase. She hit him at full force, and only his quick reflexes stopped them both from plummeting to the stone floor. His hands shot out and took hold of her elbows, cutting off her momentum and keeping the both of them on their feet. It was more a reflexive reaction than anything, but the feeling of holding her so close to him, but though not quite as close as he would like... it was both wonderful and excruciating at the same time.

They held eye contact for a couple of seconds, Lily stunned and James a mixture of baffled and amused. James vaguely remembered asking her what she was doing up so early, and she had hesitated momentarily, as if she couldn't find the words. And then she was gone with little more than a brief excuse thrown over her shoulder as she hustled from the room.

Now, an hour or so had passed, and the very same redhead was asleep on the couch about ten metres from where James sat, still contemplating his unfinished letter. He'd heard her making to the leave the room, but she stopped about halfway to the portrait hole and unceremoniously merged with the cushions. Soon enough, her breathing became slow and rhythmic; James knew she had fallen asleep.

It took all the self-control in his body to stay seated and not take the half dozen steps or so that would bring him closer to her sleeping form - it was difficult to say why, but now that she was unconscious and oblivious to his stares, there was a certain pull toward her, not to mention a strange sort of curiosity. When she was awake, he felt like he couldn't approach her without risking arguing, awkwardness or some mixture of the two; now that she was asleep, there was none of that. Unless she woke up and saw him looking at her. Yes, that would definitely be a problem.

Unfortunately, seven years of being friends with Sirius Black didn't exactly yield many lessons in self-restraint. Before he knew it, James found himself getting up and quietly making his way over to the sitting area by the fire.

There she was, curled up awkwardly at one end of the couch, fiery hair sprayed over the cushions. There was something peaceful about a sleeping Lily Evans; no yelling, none of that fierce astuteness that she possessed in her waking hours. On the other hand, there was something not entirely relaxed about her face; James wondered if she worried about her friends even while asleep. She shivered suddenly, and it was no wonder - a t-shirt in the middle of autumn? Evans had to be mad. Then again, he'd always known that she was... just a little. It was one of the things he liked about her.

Fortunately, James had just enough self-restraint to fight the urge to reach out and touch her like he wanted so badly to do. Instead, he pulled a blanket from the armchair closest to the fire place and carefully draped it over her sleeping form. He sat down on the opposite couch and watched, waiting for the shivering to stop. It did, and he smiled to himself, finally tearing his eyes away from her.

* * *

"So... why was Lily acting so strangely?"

Jamie looked up from her knees to meet Frank's questioning gaze. "Hmm?" She'd heard him correctly, but after dodging the topic since the pair had abandoned the common room for a more private alcove on the fourth floor, she still wasn't sure how to respond to that question.

"Lily, your friend. She looked really surprised to see us together." Frank left it hanging at that, and Jamie faltered. She stared at him for a couple of seconds, hoping her brain could come up with an answer that would roll smoothly off her tongue, and perhaps sound vaguely believable - but instead, her brain shut off altogether as if to say, "Sorry, pal, but this one's on you."

Trying to keep her cool, Jamie sighed and half-shrugged. (Yeah, _real_ convincing.) "I honestly have no idea," she started. "I guess... maybe she didn't know how serious things had gotten between us." She chanced another look up at him, and was pleased to note that his eyes betrayed a considerable amount of understanding.

"But she's your best friend, right? Doesn't that mean you tell her everything? I mean, even Carter and I have the occasional heart-to-heart, and we're guys."

Jamie giggled at that, but her heart wasn't in it. What he'd just said had switched her brain back on, and she realised several things at once. It was like a trigger going off in her mind - a trigger that set off a chain reaction. The result was near-catastrophic.

One, Frank really was a great guy. Better than she deserved. How much had she put him through? How much had he endured without once getting fed up with her antics, without putting his foot down and saying, "You know what? You're not worth it"? Truthfully, Jamie realised now, she'd almost been hoping he'd do something along those lines. If he'd ended things a long time ago, she'd have been okay with that. In fact, it would have been a tremendous relief. But with the relationship at her own disposal, things became more complicated - she'd never been very good at identifying how she felt, but convincing herself of feelings she didn't have? That was one talent she _did_ possess. She saw that now. She knew that she'd lead him on, whether intentionally or not, in order to fulfil her own selfish motives. And Frank... Frank didn't deserve to be on the receiving end of it. Not at all.

Two, Frank - poor, abused Frank - had a point. Lily _was_ her best friend. They were supposed to tell each other everything. And what had she done? She'd lied to her face on multiple occasions - about Frank, about her feelings, about Remus...

That brought her to number three. Whether or not she liked it, there was something about Remus Lupin that made him impossible to get out of her head. Seeing him standing there in the common room with that look on his face - angry, confused and devastated all at the same time - had been unbearable. Why on earth had she put him through that when, really, it was the last thing she wanted to do? She was an idiot. If Frank was first on her apology list, and Lily second, then Remus was a definite third. But she owed him much more than a simple apology.

And fourth: she was a horrible, horrible person.

"Jamie?" Frank interrupted her thoughts, looking at her with deep concern. "Are you alright? You're crying." He took her hand tenderly in one of his, and with the other, brushed away the tears that Jamie hadn't even realised were falling.

She looked sadly up at him. "Frank," she said, and her voice cracked. Slowly but surely, she moved her hand out of his grasp. He looked confused, but let her go. Jamie bit her lip. "I'm sorry, but I can't do this to you. It isn't fair."

"What isn't fair, Jamie?" He reached out for her hand again, but she pulled it away and stood up in one swift motion. She knew she was going to have to face him - come clean about everything - but now wasn't the time. In this state, she didn't know if she could formulate a proper sentence, let alone explain all the terrible things she had done without sending Frank off the deep end.

"I have to go," she said, and turned to leave. She walked briskly down the corridor, trying desperately to hold back the sobs that were threatening to escape - and failing. She only made it down one flight of stairs before she started to shake uncontrollably, and slipped into the crevice between two suits of armour opposite a solid wall, hugging her knees. She knew she wasn't completely invisible, but it would have to do for now.

Jamie sat there and cried, her face buried in her robes, over everything that had suddenly built up inside her; guilt for what she had done to Frank, regrets about the distance she had inadvertently let grow between herself and her best friend, and worry over Remus... Did he hate her now? Oh, who was she kidding? Who _wouldn't_ hate her by this point?

Most of all, she marvelled at what a bitch she had been for the past month or so. Who'd have thought that sweet, quiet little Jamie Love would turn out to be the bad guy, so to speak?

She hated herself for breaking down like this. She had no right to be upset; she'd hurt people over the past few weeks, but they'd done nothing to hurt her. She couldn't help it, though - it was all too much to take at once. She'd been pushing these feelings out of her mind for a long time, and now that they all came rushing back in at once... it was an emotional overload.

Footsteps - swift but hesitant - echoed up and down the corridor. A sob caught in Jamie's throat as she feared it might be Frank, coming after her to see what was wrong. There was no way she could face him right now, and hopefully, he understood that she needed some time and space to think.

But it wasn't Frank. A lanky, easily-recognisable figure stopped in front of her, his forehead creased as he obviously tried to decide what to do with the situation. She didn't blame him, especially after this morning.

"Go away," Jamie growled in spite of herself.

Remus scoffed. "You're telling _me_ to leave? That's rich."

Jamie sniffed. "I'm... sorry."

Remus shook his head as if completely fed up with her. "You know, this morning, I was actually thinking about talking to you. Trying to work things out. But then I saw you with Frank, and..." The anger was plain on his face. "I heard you when you'd taken the Veritaserum - you don't even like him. I can't believe you would string him along like that."

Jamie stood up unsteadily; she wasn't sure how much more of this she could take. It was only ten-thirty in the morning, and yet she'd already reached her emotional quota for the day. It was time to go back to the dormitories and try to make sense of things.

"I wasn't stringing him along," she hissed at Remus, not because she was angry with him personally, but because she wanted him to shut up and stop rubbing salt in her self-inflicted wounds. "I didn't mean to hurt Frank! I was just confused, okay?"

Remus let out a noise of frustration. "You're _always _confused, Jamie. And you know what? I'm sick of waiting for you to make up your mind." He turned as if to leave, but Jamie had just thought of something, and she wasn't ready to let him go that easily.

"And what about you, huh?" She was hoarse at first, but she soon found her voice. "One minute you're trying to talk to me, and the next you turn around and get all defensive, as if you don't want me around at all. You've always got 'things going on', and since you won't even tell me what they are, I don't think you have any right to be angry with me."

Remus turned to her, a dark look in his eyes. "That is _completely_ different." He paused, staring into her eyes with an expression so fierce that she shivered involuntarily. "And I might have secrets, Jamie, but at least I'm not a liar."

He was right, she knew. Her face crumpled as the tears came again, and though she put a hand to her mouth to quell the sobs, they would not stop. She opened her mouth to excuse herself, but instead, she exploded.

"DON'T YOU THINK I'VE ALREADY THOUGHT ABOUT THAT, REMUS? Did you think I was just wallowing in self pity, sitting down here all alone? I _know_ I'm a liar, I _know_ I've hurt a lot of people, and I _know_ that I'm the most horrid person in the world, okay?" Feeling shaky on her legs, she planted her forearms angrily against the wall and put her head between her fists. "So thank you for your comments, because they're completely true, but I've already REALISED all of this. So can you please just leave me alone to figure things out?"

Remus was silent for a long time. For a moment, Jamie thought he might have simply walked away - but then he cleared his throat and spoke in a softer tone. "You want me to leave you alone... in this state?"

Jamie turned to him with as much heat in her eyes as she could muster. "Yes."

"You're a right mess, Jamie. At least let me get you-"

"FINE," Jamie snapped, taking her arms off the wall. "_I'll_ leave."

As she strode past him, he reached out and grabbed her by the upper arm. Before she knew it, her face was inches from his, she could feel his rapid breaths rush past her ears, and his cologne, mixed with his natural scent, was so overpowering that she felt her knees growing weak. Fearfully, she looked into his grey eyes; there was no end to their depth as he stared into her, seemingly trying to read her emotions.

"What is it that you want, Jamie?" he breathed. Their eye contact remained steady.

Jamie swallowed. "I want..." Oh, Merlin, his lips were so close to hers. Another couple of inches and she could kiss him, throwing everything out into the open. That would be her answer. She knew that was _supposed_ to be her answer. The pull was as strong as gravity, and, she realised now, she was completely ready for this - she had been for quite some time - but...

She stopped herself.

Did she really deserve this right now? Not ten minutes ago, she'd walked away from Frank yet again without giving him an ample explanation for what was going on. She hadn't apologised to Lily, hadn't really come to terms with the kind of person she'd become - this was hardly the time to be rewarding herself.

"I... I don't know what I want," she whispered, her forehead creasing miserably in contemplation.

And that was it. She'd blown it. His jaw was set, his eyes became as solid as the stone walls surrounding them, and he turned away, letting go of her.

"I'm sorry, Remus," she said to his back as he strode away, but he did nothing in response - only continued to walk until he was out of sight.

Jamie stood there for who-knew-how-long, staring blankly down the corridor at the place where he'd turned the corner and disappeared. Then, snapping out of that trance, she pulled herself together as best she could and headed in the opposite direction with no particular destination in mind.

She could still feel his touch on her arm when she stepped outside into the biting wind.

* * *

When Hannah stepped out of the bathroom that morning, she was met with two very peculiar sights.

One, Alice - little Alice Hanby, who always had a smile for everyone - was curled up into a ball on her bed in the far corner, sobbing. Rosalie sat next to her with a copy of Witch's Weekly, looking worried and stroking her friend's dark hair.

"Hey, is she okay?" Hannah asked, genuinely concerned. She and the others had never been all that close to the two of them, but Alice was a generally a very upbeat person, and it was strange to see her like this, completely defeated.

Rosalie looked up at her. "Sorry, but it's none of your business," she said coolly. Hannah was a little shocked at the ice in her tone; it was almost accusatory, but of what, she didn't know.

"Okay," she said. "I'm heading down to breakfast. Do you need me to bring anything back from the kitchens?"

Rosalie looked annoyed, as if Hannah should have taken the hint before and left them alone. "No," she said, "but would you mind not hogging the bathroom in the future? You were in there for like an hour."

Hannah froze; they'd noticed? But of _course_ they had. The dorm wasn't exactly a very private place for broken-hearted girls to go and cry their eyes out; the bathroom would have been their first choice, but it had been occupied. For a very long time. In fact, an hour sounded about right.

"Sorry," she said, "I lost track of time."

"Whatever," said Rosalie. "Oh, and that bird's been attacking the window for half the morning. Do you think you could get rid of it?"

_"Yes, your Highness_," Hannah wanted to say, but instead, she said, "What bird?" and looked at the window, where her question was answered, and where her eyes met Peculiar Sight Number Two. A great scarlet macaw stood on the window sill, wings flapping and beak tapping sharply against the pane. She wondered why she hadn't heard the racket before, but then, there were always weird noises around Hogwarts, and this one didn't stand out as particularly odd.

"Regan," Hannah muttered, shaking her head. "You're trouble, you are." Clearly, she wanted to be let in. She glanced over at Rose and Alice; neither was paying attention, but it would still be risky, bringing bird-Regan into the dormitory. Hannah had just emerged from the bathroom and Rosalie knew that, so if she chucked the bird in there and a bathrobe-clad Regan emerged not ten seconds later, it wouldn't make physical sense. In the interests of keeping their secret safe, there had to be another way.

"Shit," Hannah said to herself, pacing a couple of metres back and forth while trying to come up with a plan. There were bound to be at least a couple of people in the common room by now, so that obviously wasn't an option. The corridor? No, the windows there were far too high, so there would be no way for Hannah to get one open. The owlery would be the obvious option, were it only a couple hundred metres closer...

Then she had it.

Hastily, she snatched a quill and parchment from Lily's bedside table - on one side of the parchment, she noticed, was a messily-drawn snitch - and scrawled a quick note.

_You bloody bird, why didn't you think of this before?_

_Meet me at the Room of Requirement - you know how to get there (duh). I'll bring clothes._

_You're an idiot._

_- Han_

She pressed the note up to the glass. She could have sworn the macaw glared at her, but maybe she was just imagining things (who was she kidding? Of course the macaw glared at her. This was _Regan_, for crying out loud). Then, it nodded almost imperceptibly and flew off. Hannah snatched a bed sheet before she, too, took off.

Hannah knew the way to the Room of Requirement well; the Rogues had held countless practice sessions in there in the past few weeks, though little progress, aside from partial transformations, had been made of late. Hannah suspected it was the stress that was getting to them - school-related as well as Marauder-related - and this made sense; Regan, who'd had a lot of success in the transformation department, was currently experiencing very few Marauder troubles and didn't give a damn about school.

By the time she reached the tapestry, she had a clear purpose in mind - to get into a room with a window. It was nice and simple, so she had no trouble getting the door to appear, and slipped through even before it had grown to its full size. There was a window, alright - nice and big and so spotless that Regan flew into it face first.

Hannah couldn't contain her laughter. The Regan-bird, on the other hand, was furious, and once Hannah had let her in, she wouldn't stop squawking.

"Alright, alright, I'm sorry," said Hannah. "Can you change back now?"

Regan squawked again and made a strange motion with her wing.

"What?"

The bird, looking impatient, hopped in the air and turned 180 degrees.

"Oh, _right_," said Hannah, understanding dawning upon her. "Well, here you are." She tossed the bed sheet down next to Regan and turned around, strolling to the other side of the room.

"You call _this_ clothes?"

Hannah turned around to see a fully human Regan wrapping the sheet around herself. "Well, yeah. It's the best I could do with such short notice."

"You don't aim very high, do you?" She was trying to secure the sheet around every square inch of her body, and failing miserably. "As heavy as they were, I would have carried my real clothes back from the roof if I'd known you were _this_ pathetic. I am _not_ walking back to the common room dressed like this."

"Oh, come on, Reegs," Hannah pleaded as she headed for the door. "Nobody's even up yet, anyway. Well, a few people are, but it's a Saturday, and we can take a detour. Promise."

For the second time in less than two weeks, Regan found herself forced to traipse the corridors in an undesirable clothing situation - except this time, instead of wearing too much, she was wearing far too little. Much to Regan's pleasure - and Hannah's disappointment - they didn't pass a soul in the corridors (well, except for Nearly Headless Nick, but he barely counted. And besides, all he did was make a face of severe disapproval and float through the ceiling muttering, "Kids these days...").

"Looks like it's your lucky day, Reegs," Hannah acknowledged as they approached the Fat Lady's portrait. "I forgot to ask - how _did _you get stuck outside, anyway? Couldn't you have just used the main entrance? Or the astronomy tower? Or something?"

Regan shook her head. "In case you hadn't noticed, birds aren't very good at opening things. And actually, I changed back a couple of times when I was sure nobody was looking, and everything was locked. I used the passage from the dungeons to get out, just so nobody saw me, you know, but when I tried to get back in, that idiot Lupin was sitting right by the trapdoor looking all broody. I guess the Marauders know about that one, too."

"The Marauders know about passages even _we _haven't found, Regan," Hannah said with an annoyance that wasn't directed at her sheet-clad best friend. "But yeah, that's strange. Maybe they've upped the security on the school or something?"

"Yeah, sure. Like Hogwarts could get any more secure."

"Password?"

Hannah drew her wand and flicked it at the portrait. "_Alohomora_!"

"Hey!" the Fat Lady protested as her picture smacked into the wall at full force. "I'll have you expelled for that! Expelled, I tell you!"

"Yeah, whatever," said Hannah, stowing her wand. "I've always wanted to see if that worked."

"So much for security," Regan said with a shrug, and made to give her friend a high-five. "On second thought... er, I think I need both hands to keep this sheet up."

Although they'd been lucky in not running into anybody in the corridors, they weren't so fortunate here; of all the people to have as witnesses of an embarrassing moment, Sirius Black was quite possibly the worst. There were others, too, but they did little more than point and quietly laugh, and were silenced by a classic Regan Death Glare. With Sirius, it wasn't quite so easy.

"Tain, are you... naked... under that?" he asked in bewilderment, his eyes lighting up with the kind of the joy that only comes from seeing one of your worst enemies suffer complete humiliation. "Wow. And to think we had nothing to do with this..."

"Yeah," said Regan, striding past as quickly as possible. "You _wish_ you'd had something to do with this."

"Touché," Sirius replied with a wink.

Hannah snorted and went to follow Regan, offering Sirius a swift kick in the shin on the way by. He was unfazed.

"Hey, Milton, don't you want to see what I've found?" he asked jovially.

Hannah glared at him. "And _what_ did you find, Black? Some poor second year's diary? Some pathetic innuendo scratched into the window sill? Oh, wait, I've got it - a hippogriff turd?"

"Actually," said Sirius, "_better_ than a hippogriff turd. Look."

He gestured at the two couches next to the fire; Hannah followed his gaze and nearly laughed out loud at what she saw there (she only restrained herself in a solid refusal to give him that satisfaction) - Lily, fast asleep on one couch, and James, snoring away on the one opposite hers. Hannah had been in such a hurry on her way out that she mustn't have noticed it before, but these two had clearly been out cold for a while; there was static in Lily's hair and James's clothes were all rumpled.

"Okay, Black, I have to admit," Hannah said with a half-smile, "this is a pretty damn good find."

"Yup," Sirius said proudly. "By the looks of it, they're not going to wake up for a while yet." He glanced at Hannah, a mischievous grin tugging at the corners of his lips. "So, if you're thinking what I'm thinking..."

Hannah raised an eyebrow. "Face it, Black - no one is _ever _thinking what you're thinking." Then she looked at the two couches, only metres apart, and the two sleeping figures - and then back at Sirius. "Except me, right now. Let's go."

Sirius grinned. "Excellent."

Neither Lily nor James so much as stirred as their couches were being dragged across the wood floor. For the first time in... well, the first time _ever_ (if you excluded every Quidditch match they had ever played in, because Quidditch in itself was an anomaly where the Marauders and the Rogues were concerned) Hannah and Sirius worked together toward a common goal. When they were finished, they stood back and admired their handiwork.

Now, instead of being several arms' lengths apart, the two couches were pushed together, their occupants so close that their faces were nearly touching. Where Lily's right hand had once been hanging off the couch, it was now draped across James' left one. Even this - which had been Hannah's idea - hadn't woken either of them; in fact, the two looked even more peaceful now that they were only inches apart.

"Wow," Hannah said. "To think _you _actually came up with this..."

Sirius smirked. "I guess I'll take that as a compliment. But I have to say, the hand thing - that just tops it all off."

Hannah laughed. "Oh, hell, I can't wait until they wake up."

* * *

They got their wish an hour later, when they were both seated by the window, close to falling asleep themselves. They hadn't said a word the entire time; they just sat there, watching, waiting, and wondering how on earth they were sitting next to one another without getting the urge to rip each other's heads off.

Then, at half past eleven, a scream.

A couple of enraged cries.

Some beating with a pillow.

A whole lot of confusion.

And then...

"SIRIUS!"

"What the hell?" Sirius complained. "Why do they always bl-"

"Run!" Hannah urged, tugging at Sirius' sleeve.

"Where?"

"The portrait hole!"

The pair bolted out the door, slamming a furious Fat Lady back into her frame on the way out. "YOU AGAIN!" she screeched. "I'LL HAVE YOU MOVED TO SLYTHERIN, I WILL! GET BACK HERE, SCALLYWAG! I'M NOT DONE WITH YOU!"

When they were safely down several of flights of stairs and hidden around a corner, Sirius turned to Hannah, panting. "You make enemies quick, don't you?"

"Oh, it's part of my natural charm," Hannah retorted, her hands on her knees as she tried to catch her breath. "'Sides, she's got something up her butt."

"Yeah, something big." Sirius coughed. "Man, are we going to have to get in shape for the Quidditch season or what?"

"You? In shape? Don't make me laugh."

Just then, a nearby door swung open and out stepped Peter, looking ruffled. "Sirius!" he exclaimed, stumbling toward his friend. "Thank Merlin you're here! I've been locked in that classroom all night - some third year shoved me in, and I only just realised it was unlocked the whole-" He seemed to notice Hannah's presence for the first time, and was so taken aback that he literally took two steps backward. He glanced between the two of them, standing side by side without the slightest hint of hostility, and gave them a look that suggested the laws of the universe had been shattered.

"Are you serious?" he asked, dumbstruck.

Sirius scoffed. "Of course I am," he said. "Who else would I be?"

* * *

**A/N: Ah, yes... it just wouldn't be a chapter of TMATR if I didn't throw in a completely ridiculous Peter scene. I love torturing him. But you know that already.**

**Sorry about the lame ending (it seems everything about this chapter is lame... or maybe I just have a very limited vocabulary). It's just that I've always wanted to finish off on a Sirius pun... so I did. YAY. I probably shouldn't do it again.**

**Anyway, next time, we'll finish the lead-up to TBDO (The Big Dramatic One), and I'll hopefully be able to give Lames some more screen time. In the mean time, why not leave a review? If not for the awesomeness (cough) of this chapter, then how about my incredible poetry skills? "Screen time"/"mean time"? You know? Yeah, maybe not...**


	23. A Shot at Redemption, Part One

**Plot:** The infamous Marauders weren't alone in their love for pranking. In fact, they often had their butts kicked by a bunch of girls. Now, this is it. Seventh year. Four girls, four boys. Two opposing pranking teams. One hell of a battle to be won.

**Disclaimer:** Sad as it may be, I am not J.K. Rowling in disguise, and therefore I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters and themes involved. (I do, however, own Jamie, Hannah and Regan - so no poaching.)

**Chapter Notes:** -GASP- What is this? A quick update from PrincessEarth? What's next - universal implosion?  
Yes, there must be something seriously wrong with me this week. I actually pushed through and overcame writer's block in the interest of getting this chapter up as quickly as possible. We have a slight problem, though... I had to do another split, so that means Chapter 25, not 24, will be the Big Dramatic One. I know, I know. Enough of this already. I'm sorry - I'm terrible at keeping things short.  
But hey, since I'm updating more frequently now, it's kind of like a compromise, no?  
Oh, right. I almost forgot - I decided to take the advice of a reviewer and include a short recap at the beginning of each chapter, so that, if it's been a while, you don't have to go back and reread everything. I thought that was an awesome idea - so thanks, **walking-on-a-dream**!

_**Previously, in The Marauders and the Rogues...  
**_Lily and Remus, of all people, are late handing in their DADA essays. The topic? Werewolves.  
Jamie and Frank's relationship is revealed to all. Well, except for Hannah, Regan, Sirius and Peter, but we can assume they find out at some point. Most importantly, though, it is revealed to Remus.  
Alice Hanby bawls her head off for "unknown" reasons.  
Jamie has some kind of fit bordering on a nervous breakdown, half-breaks-up with Frank, goes and cries in a corner, blah blah blah, is found by Remus, has a shouting match with Remus, messes everything up with Remus, etc. Yay for Jamie!  
James receives a letter from his mother stating that his father was nearly killed in a Death Eater attack on his Auror troupe. James _also_ gets all creepy and watches Lily sleep, and ends up falling asleep on the couch opposite her, allowing Hannah and Sirius to pull a prank on them. This, of course, gives Sannah (Hirius? You know, my couples all have such DUMB names) the bonding time we all know they need.  
Oh, and Regan gets stuck outside in her bird form. WHAT A GENIUS. More genius-like, though, is Peter's getting locked in a not-locked classroom by a third year. But that's not important.

What _is_ important is this...

* * *

**Chapter Twenty-Three - A Shot at Redemption, Part One**

Halloween was drawing nearer. In a week's time, Lily and the Rogues would have spent two months at Hogwarts. _Two months?_ Lily had thought at first. _Has it really been that long?_ But there was no doubt that time had indeed passed Lily by as she'd stopped to smell the flowers. In another sense, these two months had been, if not the longest in her life, then certainly the strangest - it seemed as if _everything _had changed since they'd entered seventh year; some things for the better, others for the worse. And with a few things, well... it was hard to tell what would be the outcome. "Wait and see" had become something of a mantra for Lily these days, and quite frankly, she was getting tired of waiting.

As she slid under the covers on Saturday night, her mind still reeling from Sirius' cruel prank, she closed her eyes and waited for sleep to come. It didn't. Her mind was too alive with thoughts of humiliation and revenge, not to mention the deep sense of dread that settled in her stomach when she realised she and her "beloved," as Sirius liked to say, had a meeting scheduled for seven o'clock the following evening.

In the Heads' common room.

On the _couches_.

Lily rolled over and swore harshly into her pillow. When she pulled her face out of the fabric, her eyes were still wide open, her mind still remarkably alert despite the measly amount of sleep she'd (just barely) managed to grab in the last forty-eight hours, Lily was about ready to punch something. Instead, she decided to calm down and reflect on her time at Hogwarts so far. As she thought about it more and more, she realised just how many things were no longer the same as they had been before the year had begun.

One: James. And since when did she call him that, anyway? Last year, he was "_Potter_," a name spat venomously off Lily's lips; a frustratingly persistent git who seemed to be around every corner she turned - not to mention, a Marauder to the core. And now... Now he was James, an almost-civilised, almost-pleasant human being who suddenly possessed the dangerous ability to make Lily_ smile_.

Two: Lily. She had to face it - she, too, had changed her attitude since the year before, when the Rogues had been her single, unwavering loyalty at Hogwarts (disregarding her "infatuation with homework," as Regan liked to call it). How quickly that had changed without her even realising. All her friends were acting strangely, and some - Jamie, Hannah - wouldn't even talk to her about anything unless it involved plotting against the Marauders. (This brought her to numbers three and four.) It was because of this, Lily deemed, that she'd been more open to other relationships; in particular, the confusing one she seemed to have developed with the subject of Change Number One. Yes, she could blame it on the distance of her friends... Deep down, though, she knew it had nothing to do with that and everything to do with the fact that her own goddamned feelings seemed to have a mind of their own these days.

Three: The Rogues. Jamie was aloof, secretive. Hannah was the same, with the added bonus of mood swings the size of London. Lily was fraternising with the enemy. Regan was... Well, Regan was still Regan, but, truth be told, even she seemed to have become... more independent, Lily decided (if that were possible). And when was the last time they had pranked the Marauders? Sure, six essays a week was a pretty mountainous roadblock, but hey, when had a bit - okay, a _lot _- of homework ever stopped Regan and Hannah? It was like they just didn't have the will to hate them anymore (not collectively, anyway).

Four: The Marauders. What, exactly, was the definition of a "Marauder" these days? Lily realised that, in previous years, they'd been a sort of package deal. A block of four. The Rogues had labelled them all as spiteful, immature, annoying... basically any negative adjective they could supply, they tossed into the Marauder stereotype. (It sounded incredibly dorky to call it that, but there was no other way to put it). They'd never really thought to distinguish between them before. Now, each was a separate entity with different characteristics and different feelings toward the Rogues (who, in themselves, had become so separate in the last few months that even they could hardly be referred to as a unit anymore).

Five: The Marauders _and_ the Rogues. What was once a raging war of pranks and hexes and fiery comebacks had become something far too complicated to even begin to describe, with two teams as separate as can be having made interlocking connections in the strangest of ways. Where did one team end and the other begin? Was there a limit to this civility (or, in some cases, lack thereof) while they were still, by uncertified law set down six years prior, at _war_?

It was almost as effective as counting sheep. One thing led to another, and the list went on and on. The only difference was that, while the sheep in Lily's half-awake dreams were all the same - white, fluffy, strangely cartoonified; in short, completely uninteresting - each one of the items she added to the list was enough to consume her thoughts for hours - maybe more. So, in the end, it wasn't dull repetition that sent Lily off into the land of slumber; it was the daunting complexity of each and every thought that came to mind, threatening to drive her crazy with its endless supply of worries and possibilities.

She dozed off with one question remaining at the forefront of her mind: Would things ever be the same again?

She woke to a pillow smashing against the side of her face.

"Come on, Lily, let's go! No time to waste!" The voice was, unmistakably, Hannah's. The muscles behind the pillow-bashing could only be Regan's. She wondered where Jamie was - probably next in line for similar treatment, or already on the floor, massaging a beaten cheek.

Okay. Maybe she'd been just a little hasty in assuming that _everything_ had changed.

Lily groaned, tried to stretch the lethargy out of her muscles, and rose to her knees. Then, she launched herself off the mattress and full-on tackled her assaulter to the ground. Regan, who clearly wasn't expecting this from somebody half-asleep, was caught by surprise and thrown right off balance, landing on the floor with a comical expression of shock-slash-anger on her face.

"Damn, Lily," said Hannah. "That was pretty impressive."

Lily, who was still sprawled half on the bed and half off the edge, her face planted in the floor, grunted in reply. "I think I tore something," she mumbled, and then: "What time is it, anyway?"

Hannah tapped her watch proudly. "Five-thirty on the dot."

Lily looked up with menacing eyes. "Oh no, it isn't," she said. "Because if it were five thirty, and you'd just woken me up by beating my face with a pillow, _you'd both be dead right now_."

Hannah laughed. "Oooooh, pardon me. Everyone beware of Zombie Lily!" She stretched her arms out limply in front of her, rolled her eyes back and did a mediocre imitation of a zombie walk. Lily grabbed her ankle and pulled it out from under her, resulting in a third person hitting the floor.

"Wow," Regan said in a monotone. "Zombie Lily's kicking our asses."

Hannah winced. "Yeah, well, this ass has to sit on a broom in a couple of hours so we can beat the shit out of Ravenclaw. How's it gonna do that now, huh?"

Lily shrugged indifferently. "You'll figure it out. You're clever." She climbed back up onto her bed and grabbed a fistful of curtain. "Oh wait," she said, "I forgot - that's Jamie." With that, she drew it back into place and lay her head back down on her pillow. Maybe she'd been a little harsh, but she just wanted to sleep until noon. Was that too much to ask?

"Wow, Lily, you're nasty this early in the morning," said Hannah. Even with her eyes shut and the curtain drawn, Lily could picture the glance that was exchanged between Regan and Hannah at this stage. "Oh, well. I guess we'll just have to resort to Plan B."

Lily's eyes snapped open. "Plan _B_?" she demanded. "What could possibly be worse than Plan A?"

She wished she hadn't spoken. The next thing she knew, she was being attacked by a big red bird. It flapped its way over the curtain barrier and swooped down on her, its wings slapping her in the face. It proceeded to land on her stomach and hop up and down impatiently, flapping and squawking, its beak right in her face. It was like a fire alarm in Lily's ears; she feared she might soon go deaf. Amidst it all - in between squawks, that is - Lily thought she heard the shower running. _Huh_, the part of her brain that wasn't preoccupied remarked, _who would be taking a shower amidst this chaos?_

She managed to plug one of her ears with one hand and use the other to wrestle the bird off her torso. "Alright, alright!" she bellowed. "I'm up, you bozo! Now GET OUT!" She wrenched the curtain open and threw Regan out into the open, where she fluttered her wings and managed to right herself, turning to face Lily and squawking one more time at the top of her lungs. By now, Jamie sat bolt upright, rubbing sleep from her eyes; Alice and Rosalie, too.

"Do you mind?" That was Rose. "And what the bloody hell is that bird doing back here?"

"_Bathroom_!" Hannah hissed, ushering the bird off to her right. She reconsidered. "Er, I mean... GET BACK, YOU STUPID BIRD!" She grabbed the pillow-turned-weapon off the floor (where Regan had previously been tackled by Zombie Lily) and waved it at the bird like a flyswatter, until Regan squawked one final time and flew off in the opposite direction. Hannah opened the door to the bathroom, swatted the bird in, and slammed the door shut again.

It was only then that Lily understood the "plan" part in all this. Or, well, more of a cover-up.

The shower had indeed been running, and still was.

There was a scream from inside.

And out ran Regan, wrapped in a towel, her hair dripping onto the floorboards. She was panicked, out of breath. Lily had to admit - it was a pretty good show.

"What the HELL," Regan shouted, "was _that_?" Her eyes were wide, her jaw hanging loose, and she was partially hunched over, as if trying desperately to catch her breath. The hand that was holding the towel up was strategically (well, probably coincidentally) over her heart; the other was pointing a shaky but furious finger at the wide-open bathroom door.

Hannah gave a nervous laugh and patted her on the back. "Sheesh, Reegs. Calm down. It was only a bird."

"A _bird_?" Regan exploded, her voice high-pitched and breathless. "More like a savage bloodthirsty man-eating feather monster!"

It took a moment for Hannah to (pretend to) calm Regan down, but then things settled, and the plan, admittedly, had worked. Lily no longer had delusions about going back to sleep, and Jamie, whom they hadn't even started working on before, was awake, too. Effectively, they'd killed two birds with one stone. Speaking of birds...

"Hey," said Alice, who still sounded a bit groggy. "What did you do with the bird, anyway? I don't hear it anymore."

Regan froze, stumped. She turned to Hannah for an answer. Lily caught the helpless expression on the blonde's face, and knew that they were just a little bit screwed.

"Er..." Regan turned to face Alice, her expression morphing not-so-convincingly into one of her previous panic mixed with relief. "I flushed it down the toilet." When Alice glanced at Rosalie and raised an eyebrow, she added, "Well, I transfigured it into a rock first. Duh." Everyone was silent. Regan swallowed visibly and glanced at Hannah, who quickly changed the subject.

"Quidditch, guys!" she said cheerily, swinging her arm in such an overenthusiastic manner that she accidentally punched Lily's bedpost. She winced. "OW. Er, who wants first shower?"

When there was no response (Lily was too tired, Jamie didn't like getting involved in these sorts of situations, and Rosalie and Alice were still completely clued out), Regan cleared her throat and backed through the doorway.

"Alright, I guess I'll just finish mine, then," Regan said. She disappeared inside, but not without hitting her head on the door frame and swearing first.

It wasn't long before things were back to normal (whatever normal _was_ these days). Hannah nonchalantly skipped off to her trunk and pulled out her Quidditch robes, humming a merry tune all the while. Alice and Rosalie put their heads together and started whispering. Even though they didn't need to be awake until much later - heck, they didn't even have to attend the Quidditch match at nine if they didn't want to - they were up now, and they knew better than to try to go back to sleep after two people the likes of Hannah and Regan were up and at 'em in the vicinity. Jamie was sitting on her bed, looking thoughtful. Lily yawned and tried as hard as she could to wake up. She'd been hoping to get a proper night's sleep after her regular pattern had been disrupted so dramatically, but clearly, it wasn't meant to be. She sighed. Maybe one of these days...

"Aren't you going to get ready, Lils?" It was Hannah, sorting through her Quidditch clothes, assessing them and tossing them onto the bed.

Lily yawned again. Her brain was fuzzy. "I guess. Care to remind me why we need to be up at the crack of dawn?"

"'Cause we have Quidditch, duh," said Hannah, grinning and rolling her eyes, as if it were as simple as that.

"Yeah, at _nine_," Lily retorted. "Why five-thirty? Even you and Reegs shouldn't be up until, like, seven, at least."

"_Seven_?" Hannah made it sound like it was the most ridiculous thing she had ever heard. "That might be the way they do things in Lilyland, but here in Hannah Hills, we're up with the sun."

"No kidding. But why me and Jamie?"

Hannah flounced over to Lily's bed and waved a Gryffindor scarf in her face. "Team spirit, remember? We used to get all excited about matches and walk down to the pitch together?" She wrapped the scarf around Lily's neck and smiled. "As for the whole five-thirty thing... We just sort of felt like being annoying." With that, she skipped away.

Lily wondered what had gotten into Hannah. Only a couple of days ago, she'd been moody, remote, and almost unapproachable. Over the past few days, her mood had been gradually improving, and it had made a drastic jump yesterday morning around the time when Lily had gone off her rocker at Sirius for the stupid couch prank. Lily suspected it was the evil pleasure of watching him be chewed out for his idiotic actions. Then again, the two of them had been almost civil yesterday. Under any normal circumstances, Hannah would jump right in and take over Lily's position as verbal assaulter - any chance she got at throwing abuse in his face was snatched up in an instant - but, as she'd already established, there really was no definition of "normal circumstances" anymore.

Whether or not this was regular behaviour, Lily decided that she liked this Hannah better than the sulky one she'd seen for most of the year so far. It was, however, sub-par in comparison to the Hannah she knew and loved - the Hannah who wouldn't let anything defeat her, who stood up to everything with a smile on her face. There was something put on about this sudden optimism - but again, it was better than nothing.

"Lily, do you want to shower next?" Hannah asked. Regan had emerged from the bathroom once more, this time completely calm. She said something about morning stretches and headed downstairs. Lily shook her head at Hannah; she had her eyes on Jamie now.

She'd noticed before that the quietest of the Rogues was particularly reserved this morning, but more importantly, she had a look of utmost anxiety on her pale features. She tried to think what might be causing this - and realised with dismay that she had no way of knowing. She and Jamie hadn't spoken properly in quite some time, and this bothered her. So she crossed the space between them and sat down next to Jamie on her scarlet comforter.

Surprisingly, Jamie was the first to speak. "Hey, Lil," she said with a small but genuine smile. "What's up?"

"I was about to ask you the same question."

Jamie bit her lip. "I, uh... Not much, really."

Lily laughed and rolled her eyes. "And we all know that's code for 'a bazillion things that I don't want to talk about'." After she finished speaking, it occurred to her that it was just that - Jamie didn't want to discuss these 'things' with Lily that she'd been keeping to herself all this time. With this realisation came a wave of bitterness, followed by something resembling defeat. She sighed and was about to get up and go back to her own bed when Jamie spoke - unexpectedly, once again.

"It's not you, Lily," she said quietly. There was a deep sincerity in her voice.

"What do you mean?"

Jamie drew in a breath. "I mean, I'm sorry I've been acting like such a jerk lately. It's not that I don't want to tell you these things. It's just that I'm kind of..." She hesitated. "_Confused_ about them myself. I guess I just didn't want you to think I was a bad person, you know?"

Lily nodded. She understood. She'd had the same apprehension about confiding in her friends when she'd initially suspected she might have feelings for James. Granted, she may not have gone about it the same way, but the intention was there.

"It's okay," she said to Jamie. "I just wish you would talk to me more - I could help you. And you _know_ I wouldn't think any less of you for anything you've done." She thought for a moment. "Well, unless you were going to tell me you'd killed a firstie or something in your quest for revenge."

Jamie put on her best caught-red-handed face (something that didn't come naturally to her), turned to face Lily with wide eyes and said, "Oops."

They both burst into laughter, but when Jamie spoke again, she brought the conversation back to a somewhat serious note.

"Lily, I want to explain everything to you. And I'm going to, first chance I get. It's just... there's someone else I need to do some explaining to first."

Lily thought she knew who she was talking about, and smiled. "Frank," she said, nodding in approval. "Good to hear, Jay." Maybe it was just her, but she could have sworn the room had suddenly grown quieter.

"Yeah..." Jamie sighed. "I told him a while ago that I'd go to the match with him. Even though I kind of left him hanging yesterday, I feel like I should at least meet up with him and tell him the truth. But... I'm kind of dreading it."

At this, there was an audible scoffing noise from the other side of the room. It wasn't until Lily turned and saw Rosalie there with a spiteful look on her face that she realised it wasn't just a coincidence; the remark was aimed at Jamie and her, and she'd been listening in on their conversation. No _wonder_ the room had gone eerily silent at the mention of Frank - the whispering from the corner had momentarily stopped.

Lily felt a fierce surge of defensiveness. "Rose," she snapped. "If you don't mind, this isn't really any of your business."

Rosalie snorted at this, but otherwise ignored Lily and directed her next comment at Jamie, who looked dumbfounded. "If you don't even _like_ the guy, why are you wasting his time?"

This was enough for Lily. "What the hell, Rose?" she burst out angrily, getting to her feet. "Stop being such a bitch. This has nothing to do with you." She turned to Jamie, who was close to tears, and grabbed her by the wrist. "C'mon, Jay," she muttered under her breath, and dragged her friend to the dormitory exit. On the way by, she caught Rosalie's glare and noticed Alice staring morosely down at her pillow, quiet as ever.

When the door fell shut behind them, something clicked in Lily's brain.

Alice, crying on the morning that Jamie and Frank had - somewhat accidentally - gone public with their relationship; her sudden coldness - and Rosalie's hostility - toward the Rogues; that totally out of place comment about Jamie "wasting his time"...

It could only add up to one thing.

"Holy shit," Lily said slowly in that enlightened tone of hers. She turned her wide-eyed gaze on Jamie, who suddenly looked a little frightened.

"What?"

Lily dragged her down a few more stairs until they stood underneath the archway at the edge of the common room. "_Alice likes Frank!_" she hissed.

Jamie looked confused at first, but then her eyes shot open in realisation. "Oh my god! You're right!"

Lily nodded rapidly. "And she's got it pretty bad by the looks of things - did you see how upset she was when she saw him with you?"

Again, a quick transition between expressions - she frowned with guilt over the pain she'd caused, but just as quickly lit up again, inspiration written all over her face. Clearly, she had a plan.

"I'm going to fix this," said Jamie with resolution. "I have to come clean to Frank this morning, but once that's all over with..." Lily could see her brain ticking away even as she spoke. "Leave this to me," she concluded, and started to run back up to the dormitory. She stopped part way and turned back to Lily. "Actually, I might need your help at some point, but I'll let you know, okay?"

Lily nodded, still a little shocked at her friend's sudden outburst.

She remained at the bottom of the stairs for a few moments, just absorbing it all. It was only six in the morning; her tired brain was having trouble keeping up with all the action. One thing it could quite easily process, though, was this - boy, was she grateful to have her best friend back.

* * *

Frank seemed very confused when Jamie caught up with him in the Great Hall after breakfast.

"Are we still going to this thing... together?" he asked tentatively.

Jamie offered a shy smile. "Yeah, I was hoping we could," she answered. "But I, uh, might have to pull you out of there for a couple of minutes. There are some things I need to tell you."

Frank nodded in understanding and the two took off toward the Quidditch pitch, exchanging polite conversation along the way.

* * *

Meanwhile, Lily had been given strict orders to stall Alice Hanby in any way possible. Of course, two things made this difficult: one, dealing with Alice meant dealing with Rosalie first, and Lily could only guess, but she suspected the latter wouldn't want to hear a word she had to say after this morning's minor blow-out; two, stalling was easy when you'd been a Rogue for six years (and Lily had often played the part of lookout), but in the end, she had to make sure that Alice _did_ get to the Quidditch match this morning. There was no sense delaying her arrival if it meant that she wouldn't arrive at all.

The grand plan was simple, but would (hopefully) prove to be an effective one. Jamie had headed up to the stands with Frank; her job was to keep two spaces open on the bench in front of them, and (if possible) one behind. The idea was that Alice and Rose would be the last two to arrive, and therefore be left with the seats that Jamie had allocated as the most appropriate for the plan. As long as this first part worked, the rest of the plan would (again, _hopefully_) be foolproof.

After breakfast, Lily hung back and fell into step with the other two Gryffindor girls. Rosalie gave her a distrustful glance, as if to say, "What does this freak think she's doing here?" In spite of her expression, all she said was, "What do you want?"

"Uh..." Lily cleared her throat. "I just wanted to say I'm sorry about what happened this morning, Rose," she said with her fingers crossed behind her back. "I didn't mean to snap. I really had no clue what was going on with Jamie and Frank, anyway."

Rosalie looked taken aback, as if Lily's abrupt apology was something her brain just couldn't cope with. _As well it should be_, Lily thought sourly.

"Um, okay," said Rosalie in a you-can-go-now sort of manner. She turned back to Alice, ready to resume whatever conversation had been going on before Lily's interruption, but when she realised they still weren't alone, she swung around again. "_What?_" she demanded.

"I actually had a question for Alice," said Lily, quite pleased with how much she was getting on Rosalie's nerves. And that wasn't even part of the plan in the first place. (It wasn't like she had some sort of vendetta against the girl - she was sure her anger was temporary. There was just something about her attitude lately that was really grating on Lily's patience.) Lily stopped before they reached the door, figuring that, if she was planning on stalling them, it couldn't hurt to keep them still for a few minutes. The others reluctantly stopped with her, and she looked around the obnoxious Rosalie at Alice. "I hear from Professor Dumbledore that you're quite the whiz at Herbology. Is that true?"

Alice blushed, but smiled infinitesimally and nodded. "Uh... I guess so. Why do you ask?"

Lily smiled back. "Well, it's just that... There's this book I wanted to check out from the library on..." She racked her brain. "Fungi in Egypt. Yes, I think that was it. See, I have this bet with Professor Slughorn about this plant I brought up after Potions one day that he _swears_ doesn't exist, and I know I can prove him wrong, only... They won't let anybody check the book out who isn't studying seventh year Herbology." (Not bad for a story she'd just made up off the top of her head.) She looked pleadingly at Alice. "So do you think you could help me out?"

Alice exchanged a glance with Rosalie. They were almost as bad as the Marauders with those knowledgeable, sceptical glances at each other.

"Well," said Alice diplomatically, "could you tell me the name of the plant you're looking for? I might know it off the top of my head."

Oh, shit. She hadn't thought that far. "Er, see, that's part of the problem. I can't remember the name, exactly. Maybe something starting with a 't'?" Lily shrugged, feigning helplessness. "I was hoping you could come and get the book for me. It'll only take a minute. And I'll recognise the name if I see it."

Rosalie answered instead of Alice. "Sorry, but we're going to see the Quidditch game. Can it wait until later?"

Lily thought she might have a case on her hands until Alice - probably for the first time in her life - went against her friend's words and said, "No, it's okay. I'll go with you, Lily. I don't mind if we miss a bit of the game anyway."

Lily, although realising that her acceptance was probably more out of dread at the prospect of being near Jamie and Frank's semi-date than anything else, beamed at her. "Brilliant. I'll be as quick as I can - promise."

Rosalie, being Rosalie, followed her dark-haired friend as she and Lily hustled down the corridors, off to the library. They went along for quite some time without trouble, but when Lily took a wrong turn, hoping they wouldn't notice, Alice stopped in her tracks.

"Hey, Lily, the library's that way," she said slowly, pointing down the hall at an archway that was indeed one of the landmarks on the way to the library.

"I know," said Lily with a casual shrug, "but I've got a shortcut."

She led them through a secret passage behind a tapestry, figuring it was worth its exposure if she could prove that - for now, at least - she knew what she was talking about. They seemed vaguely impressed, and continued to follow along. Now that she had their trust, Lily wove through the network of tunnels and hidden doors, around in circles, in criss-cross patterns, until she'd gotten them good and lost.

"Oh... oh dear," she said, stopping in the middle of a musty cellar-like room and turning in a slow circle. She scratched her head for added effect. "I think we might be lost."

Rosalie made an impatient sound. "Well, that's just great. Can you at least get us out of here? I'll bet the match has already started."

Alice, on the other hand, just sighed. "You know, Rose, we don't actually _have_ to go to the game. Why can't we just finish this and help Lily find her book?"

"No, go!" Lily exclaimed without thinking. Well, she _was_ thinking (mainly that she needed Alice to go to this game, or else) but obviously not very clearly. Both Rose and Alice turned to look at her with puzzled expressions on their faces. "Er... I mean... It's okay. I can get the book some other time. Sorry about all this - you guys probably want to see how the new team is working together, with Rose's sister and all..." She trailed off, and then cleared her throat. "Right. I'll work on getting us out of here, then."

With newfound prowess, Lily navigated the way out of the forsaken caverns of Hogwarts and led Rosalie and Alice to the nearest exit, where welcome sunlight was streaming through a half-open door.

She felt she'd done an adequate of holding them back. Everything would be fine, just as long as there wasn't anyone else at Hogwarts who took "shortcuts" through hidden passages and cobweb-ridden chambers on their way to Quidditch matches...

Lily almost laughed at the thought. She knew four boys, of course, who probably did just that. Fortunately, they were - assumingly - all at the pitch by now, two of them ready to mount their brooms and commence the game, the others watching from the stands.

* * *

Jamie's part of the plan was going swimmingly by the time Alice and Rosalie showed up; she and Frank had seated themselves at the far left side of the Gryffindor stands, where nobody who wanted a good view of the game would sit. Just as intended, there was ample space in front of them for two especially tardy seventh years to sit, and a much larger gap behind, where Lily would be positioned. Of course, they were a few of the very first people to arrive at the pitch, so there was some staking out to be done - but Jamie was determined for this to work.

She kept watch for people who might be eying up the seats - dreadful as they were - while trying to keep a conversation going with Frank. After all she'd put him through, she felt she owed him that, at least, before she pulled him aside during the match and broke his heart.

The stands were starting to fill up. For some ludicrous reason, when Derek Torres (a rather rotund fourth year whose hair looked like a decomposing snail carcass) shuffled into the stands, he took one look at his seating options - a wide-open space square in the middle, or a cramped spot in front of Jamie, shoved away in the corner - and made a beeline for the one into which he would barely be able to squeeze.

Jamie, annoyed, had to think quickly. There was no time for magic; conventional methods would have to do. So she chucked her feet up onto the bench in front of her and threw her arms back (just for extra measure, in case somebody of equal idiocy decided to occupy the seat reserved for Lily). She stretched out her toes, hoping they would prove to be a sufficient roadblock for this dunderhead.

"Erm, what are you doing?" asked Frank from beside her.

She froze, having forgotten that she might have to explain this to him. "Just... stretching," she said innocently, moving her arms from side to side, flexing and pointing her toes. Unfortunately, Derek took his time getting to this end of the stands, and she had to hold this awkward position for much longer than anticipated. By the time His Sluggishness arrived, she was sure Frank was totally weirded out by her behaviour.

Finally, Derek made it, huffing and puffing. He looked down at Jamie's feet, blocking his way, and slowly up at Jamie's face, and then back. At first, she thought he was just dense. Then, it hit her - not only was he dense, he was also _checking her out_. As he tried to figure out what was going on ("Bench... Feet... Person... Ungh?") his eyes trailed up and down her body, and she suddenly felt very self-conscious of her partially-exposed stomach in this ridiculous "stretching" position. _Ew_ was all could think as she looked up at him in disgust. She brought her arms down quickly, and decided right then to take a leaf out of Regan's book. Sure, it wasn't the most sensitive way to go about it, but as long as she was trying to pull off this plan, it might just be the only option.

"Do you _mind_?" she burst out, revolted.

He just stared stupidly at her.

Jamie made an impatient sound. "Uh, hello? What the hell do you think you're doing?"

He offered an ugly, lopsided smirk that made his face look like a stress ball squeezed much too tight. "Uh... your feet are on my seat. Plus, you're kind of hot," he added in what he clearly thought was a seductive tone.

Jamie made a noise in the back of her throat. "_Your _seat?" she said incredulously. "Last time I checked, there were about a billion over there." She pointed at the space in the middle, which, to her horror, was rapidly filling up. Still, she wasn't going to back down. "Beat it, lardcake. And honestly? _Get real_."

Derek shrugged and stomped off expressionlessly.

"Wow, Jamie," said Frank. "That was... mean."

Jamie sighed. "Yeah, I know it was kind of over the top. But I hate it when tall people sit in front of me." Yes, that story would do. And while she was at it... "I'll just keep my feet here until someone shorter... like, a girl, maybe... comes by."

Ten minutes later, when the game had already begun, two familiar figures made their way up into the stands. Jamie breathed a sigh of relief.

They took their time weighing up the seating options; the obvious choice was the space in front of Jamie, but she could see the doubt in Alice's eyes, the don't-make-me-do-it gestures she was making at Rosalie, and for a moment she was worried that they might manage to finagle two seats elsewhere. Then Rose gave her friend a firm push and the two of them headed down this way. Alice kept her eyes downcast, and Rose gave Jamie a hateful look. Jamie tried not to let it bother her, though she knew she deserved every bit of it.

She barely noticed when Lily climbed up into the stands and took her seat behind Jamie and Frank. She found herself strangely taken by the game today - the grace with which the Gryffindor players moved - and worked as a team - was astounding. Sure, Ravenclaw had some pretty good players, but they lacked the cohesiveness that James, the captain, seemed to have found in his new team.

Maybe she was just trying to take her mind off the task at hand, but for once, she was really enjoying this.

* * *

The Quidditch match went by in a blur. By the time they'd been playing for about a quarter of an hour, it was clear that Gryffindor had finally assembled the perfect team; with little Ellen completing the trio of Chasers, dodging in and out of the bigger Ravenclaw players in order to make spectacular passes and interceptions, James and Sirius scoring goals like there was no tomorrow, the infallible Carter Brown acting like a brick wall in front of the goal posts, and Regan and Hannah working their Bludger-deflecting magic, there was no stopping the mighty team in gold and scarlet. Avery Williams was something else altogether, though watching her gave Lily a sick feeling in her stomach (partly due to the way she'd seen her act toward James, but also because she was still angry with her older sister for the things she'd said to Jamie that morning). She had to admit, this girl was good - in the first few minutes, she'd scoped out the area, spied the Snitch, and taken off after it. It seemed as though she hadn't lost track of it since. A couple of times, when the Ravenclaw Seeker was right on her tail, she even veered off in another direction to throw off the opposition. Lily was sure the game was on the verge of finishing, but apparently, Avery wanted to draw it out a little longer, perhaps for gloating purposes.

* * *

Soon enough, it was time - time for the part of this morning that Jamie had been dreading. She turned to Frank. "Sorry, I know it's a great game and all," she said apologetically, "but do you think we could go down to the grounds for a minute or two?"

Frank nodded, and the two of them climbed down from the stands. Jamie passed Remus on the way, but either he was too absorbed in the game or he was blatantly ignoring her. Either way, he paid her no attention.

Once they were on ground level, Frank looked at her, questions written all over his face. Jamie exhaled nervously. "Okay," she said, "let's walk."

The began to traipse in the direction of the Black Lake, where the trees had lost almost all of their leaves. Jamie shivered despite the unseasonal sunlight. She didn't like what she was about to do - not one bit. She knew, however, that once it was all over, it would be a massive weight off her chest.

Surprisingly, Frank spoke before she'd gathered her thoughts.

"You're breaking up with me, aren't you?" His eyes were solemn but accepting.

Jamie bit her lip, breathed in deeply, and spoke. "Yes," she said. She looked at him; his expression was hard to read. "Frank, you're one of the nicest guys I've ever known, and I really wish I didn't have to say these things, but... I think you deserve the truth." She stopped walking, turned to face Frank, and looked him sincerely in the eyes.

"Look, in all honesty, I should never have gotten into this in the first place. When you asked me out, I wasn't sure what I was feeling, so I got really confused about everything and decided on a whim to say yes. And then, well... after our first date, I knew it wasn't going to work out, but some other things came up that made everything way more complicated..." Jamie stopped, taking a moment to wipe away the tears that were leaking out of her eyes and rolling down her cheeks. She'd promised herself she wouldn't cry; Frank had a right to be upset, but Jamie? She should (figuratively, of course) have been taking it like a man. It was just that... She hadn't expected to feel so miserable as she let him go at last.

She looked at Frank. His face was a brick wall, drained of all emotion. There was none of that soft understanding she usually saw in his eyes, but as they looked at each other, she saw the hint of a smile.

"It's Lupin, isn't it?" he asked, though it wasn't so much a question as a personal revelation.

Jamie's eyes shot open. How did he know? Then again, what with the incident yesterday morning, it was no wonder. Maybe the tension between the two of them was more easily perceived than she'd thought. She'd vowed to tell the truth, so she lowered her gaze and nodded.

"You were using me to make him jealous."

"No! I just..." She could feel those wretched cover-ups trying to escape again, so she held them back and said, in a quiet, guilty voice, "Yes. Kind of." She lifted her head and tried to speak to him more directly. Confrontations weren't her forte, but this was something she had to do. _He deserves this_, she kept reminding herself. "I'm sorry, Frank. I guess that was part of it, but the other part... I just didn't want to hurt you. I wasn't sure how much you'd invested in this relationship and... well, I guess I'm an idiot is about all there is left to say. And I'm so, so sorry."

She waited for his response, biting her lip. (She was going to have to kick that habit sooner or later, or she'd have no lip left by December.) She wasn't expecting immediate forgiveness - or any kind of forgiveness at all, for that matter. In fact, she was bracing herself for an onslaught of accusations, insults and acid words - all of which, of course, she would take with grace. Instead, Frank's expression was unreadable. Was he angry? Sad? Ready to kick her in the face and go around telling the whole school that Jamie Love was a lying, cheating scumbag?

Actually, he looked almost... relieved.

"Jamie, you're not an idiot," he said, much to her surprise. "And just so you know, I don't have a problem with you breaking up with me. In fact, after a while, I wasn't sure I felt anything much for you, either."

"You weren't?" Jamie couldn't believe she was hearing this. Not because it was an unconceivable notion, but because, if he'd said so to begin with, things would have been simpler. A _lot_ simpler. Then again, if _she'd_ been honest in the beginning, there would have been nothing that needed simplifying.

"Yeah," said Frank with a laugh. "I was getting ready to end it, but then you went and kissed me and I got all confused."

"Oh." Jamie looked at the ground. For some stupid reason, she'd expected him to be heartbroken about this. She'd treated him so poorly, and she'd always suspected he liked her too much to say anything about it. _Wow_, she thought to herself. _No matter what he says, I really _am_ an idiot_.

Frank's face suddenly turned serious again, and she thought she caught a hint of annoyance on his features as he cleared his throat. "But, uh, just for future reference, Jamie, don't ever stay with someone out of pity's sake." He half-smiled. "Getting dumped, I can deal with - but the fact that you thought _I_ was the victim in all this, and that you felt you had to keep up the illusion that you liked me just to spare my feelings... Well, it's kind of insulting, actually."

Jamie blushed a deep red and mentally kicked herself. "I guess I didn't think of that," she admitted, "but I guess I was wrong, anyway - clearly, I'm the one who came out of this looking like a fool."

Frank laughed - a real, genuine, friendly laugh. It was a pleasant sound. "Stop saying that, will you? I think the idiocy is mutual here." Jamie grinned; even now, he was unfathomably nice to her. "But you know," he went on, "I think I've realised something through all this." Another half-smile, as if he'd just solved a nasty Arithmancy problem in his head.

"What's that?" She was curious - what could he possibly have gleaned from all of this madness?

He looked straight at her, smirking. "You, your friends and the Marauders. I always thought you hated each other - like _really, _truly hated each other's guts. But then I realised the only reason you act that way is because you're all in love with each other. It all makes sense now."

Jamie coughed, but smiled at him all the same. "That's... an interesting theory, Frank. I guess I'll, er, keep it in mind."

"You'd better. I've got ten galleons on a quadruple wedding in three years' time."

Jamie raised a cynical eyebrow. "Regan and Peter, seriously?"

Frank looked thoughtful. "Actually, I had my money on Pettigrew and you," he joked.

"Ew, gross! How dare you even suggest such a thing?" she cried out, though in a good-natured way. "And who did you pair the others with, huh? If you're so intuitive?"

"Hmm..." Frank scratched his chin. "Lily and Sirius, obviously - that'd make for a lovely, abusive household." He counted them off on his fingers. "And then, uh... Hannah and James, because they'd be Britain's favourite Quidditch family." He paused for a moment. "But I'm not sure Regan and Remus works, because that's kind of a tongue-twister."

Jamie nodded, giggling. "Okay, Frank. Well, uh... good luck with that bet, then. Peter and I will be sure to invite you to our - You know what? I can't even joke about that." She made a gagging noise. "Thanks for the mental image, by the way. I think I might be scarred for life."

"Anytime," said Frank with a wink. He turned to look in the direction of the Quidditch pitch. "Anyway, I might get back to the game. Are you coming?"

Jamie shook her head. "Thanks, but I think I might hang out down here for a while."

Frank shrugged. "Suit yourself." He turned to walk away, but swivelled around after a couple of steps. "And Jamie? Thanks for telling me the truth."

Jamie nodded, gave him a modest smile and a wave, and turned toward the lake.

She had to admit, she enjoyed this new kind of interaction with Frank; maybe now that all the awkwardness had been done away with, they could actually be friends. She wasn't counting on it - in fact, she suspected that it might be a problem if she and Lily's matchmaking plan was successful - but it would be nice to have somebody like Frank to talk to.

Jamie sat down on a rock by the Black Lake. Not long ago, she'd sat in that same place, telling a barefaced lie to her best friend. Now, she felt completely different. With one apology down, she had every intention of filling Lily in on everything at the first chance she got.

And after that, there was only one person left.

* * *

Lily smiled when Frank sat back down in front of her. He didn't look particularly troubled, so she assumed things had gone well.

Soon, the game drew to a dramatic end. Gryffindor was up by a hundred and twenty points - a feat in itself - when Avery closed in on the Snitch at last. She was inches away, her arm straining as she reached out as far as she could while still keeping her balance - and then, as if deciding it needed to further test her skills, the little gold ball began to plummet toward the ground. Without even hesitating, Avery soared after it, approaching zero altitude at an alarming rate; the crowd was on its feet, cheering her on, and everyone gasped as she was about to make impact-

And then she pulled up, and she had the Snitch in her hand.

The crowd erupted in cheers. Even Lily stood up, clapping excitedly. James had been brilliant - in fact, she realised that, in her state of denial, she hadn't been giving him enough credit all these years. He really was talented.

That, however, was not the thing to be dwelling on right now. Frank, in front of her, was on his feet as well, while Alice, in the very front row, had remained seated. _This is all working out too perfectly, _Lily thought, smirking at what she was about to do. She jumped up and down, screaming, and made a few motions with her arms that were perhaps a little _too_ enthusiastic - and, with one errant elbow, knocked Frank clean off his feat.

_Zombie Lily strikes again_, she thought to herself as she watched him tumble over the front bench. Out loud, she said, "Oh god, Frank, I'm so sorry!" but he didn't seem to hear her. He was too busy apologising to a practically star-struck Alice, whose lap he had just about landed in. She shook her head in an "it's fine" sort of gesture, and helped him to his feet. Both were smiling. Lily smiled, too.

Just then, Jamie appeared beside her. "How'd it go?" she asked eagerly.

"Perfectly," Lily replied, and high-fived her friend. "How about you? Did everything go alright down there with your 'talk'?"

Jamie shrugged. "Yeah, I guess," she said, but the carefree expression on Jamie's face was enough to tell her that things had gone better than "alright".

Lily shifted her gaze back to the pitch, where the Gryffindor team had landed their brooms and were celebrating, jumping up and down and congratulating one other on winning the first match of the year. Carter had thrown Avery up onto his shoulders and there were hugs all around. Regan and Hannah gave Ellen a bear hug before (believe it or not) turning their attention to the other Chasers. Regan hugged everybody; Hannah stood facing Sirius for an awkward moment before they settled for a fist bump and went their separate ways.

Carter let Avery swing down off his shoulders, and she moved with determination toward James and Sirius.

"I smell trouble," Lily muttered to Jamie.

First, she embraced Sirius, and it wasn't so bad. Granted, she held on for a bit longer than was socially acceptable in the given situation (and Lily could practically see Hannah gnashing her teeth, even from all the way up in the stands) but when she finally broke away from him and approached James, all of that became insignificant.

Squealing, she threw herself into his arms, wrapping her arms about his neck and her legs about his waist. James looked taken aback, but not altogether unhappy. There were wolf whistles from the crowd as she held onto him; Lily clenched her fists. When James placed her back on the ground, it looked as though he was congratulating her on her catching the Snitch, maybe offering a few words of wisdom as captain of the team. But all Lily noticed was the radiant smile on his face - the smile she secretly wished would be directed at her.

However pained Lily was by the sight of all that, she couldn't help but laugh when she saw Avery approach Regan and Hannah, clearly expecting praise of some sort. The Beaters, having seen the spectacle with James, were not impressed. They stood side by side as they swung their bats in threatening circles and pounded them into their hands.

She only wished they were equipped with a Bludger or two right about now.

* * *

**A/N: Ah, Lily and her violent mind. I hope you don't mind that this chapter was fairly (or, well, extremely) Jamie-centric. I know I do (mind, that is) because personally, I don't like Jamie as a character. I just needed to get the whole Frank thing cleared up, and if I had to take a whole chapter to do that, then so be it.**

**Also, I just thought I'd reiterate (for my dignity's sake, if nothing else) that I named Rosalie as such before I knew ANYTHING about Twilight. In fact, as most of you know, I have... er, "issues" would be a nice way of putting it... with that book, so I'm considering changing her name to something else. Every time I write "Alice and Rosalie", I cringe. Just thought I'd put that out there.**

**Okay, and finally, I wanted to get your opinions on a couple of things. First, I really don't feel like I'm balancing the screen time very well in this story (like, for instance, there's been barely any Lily/James so far) so if you guys could tell me who your favourite characters/couples are, then I'd gladly tip the scale in that direction. Also, I'd like to know which scenes you like and which ones you don't. I know a lot of you tell me that already, but I just wanted to let everybody know that I'm completely open to suggestions.**

**Also, and THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PART, so if you're planning on skipping through this ridiculously long author's note, then please read this, at least: I made a Formspring account so that, if you guys want to ask me questions about writing, fanfiction, TMATR, or anything at all, you can do so there. The link is on my profile, but if you're too lazy to go there, my username is PrincessEarth (same as here) so it should be easy to find.**

**Shutting up now.**

**~PrincessEarth**


	24. A Shot at Redemption, Part Two

**Plot:** The infamous Marauders weren't alone in their love for pranking. In fact, they often had their butts kicked by a bunch of girls. Now, this is it. Seventh year. Four girls, four boys. Two opposing pranking teams. One Hell of a battle to be won.

**Disclaimer:** Sad as it may be, I am not J.K. Rowling in disguise, and therefore I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters and themes involved. (I do, however, own Jamie, Hannah and Regan - so no poaching.)

**Previously, in The Marauders and the Rogues...  
**Regan had a close call with Alice and Rosalie when she used her Animagus form to get Lily out of bed and claimed to have flushed the mysterious bird down the toilet.  
Jamie FINALLY broke up with Frank once and for all.  
Jamie and Lily executed a master matchmaking plan to get Frank and Alice together - and were ultimately successful.  
Unfortunately, Avery (the fifteen-year-old Gryffindor Seeker) decided to go and hug James (very inappropriately, I might add) in front of the entire crowd at the Quidditch game, causing Lily to become very angry.

And here is what happens next...

* * *

**Chapter Twenty-Four - A Shot at Redemption, Part Two**

Gryffindor had claimed its first victory.

James, as captain of the team, couldn't have been happier. After the game, he was on such a high that he began to doubt whether he'd really landed his broomstick at all. A punch on the arm from Sirius confirmed that he was, in fact, on solid ground (not that Sirius wouldn't attempt such a thing while they were still airborne) and he turned to face his fellow Chaser.

"What a game, huh?" said Sirius breathlessly.

"Yeah," replied James. His head was still buzzing with so much adrenaline that he could barely hear his own voice. (The deafening cheers coming from the Gryffindor stands might have been a contributing factor, too.) "Who'd have thought we could pull together a better team than last year's?"

Sirius nodded fervently; his eyes remained bright, but his expression was suddenly thoughtful. "I gotta admit, as much as she pisses me off, that Williams girl is a legend." His gaze drifted over to the blonde Seeker, who was busy flirting with Carter by the bottoms of the goalposts.

The sight of Avery set James' stomach - and his thoughts - turning. What she'd done before had been completely inappropriate, but he'd had no time to react properly. Had Lily noticed? Was she angry? Did she even care enough to be angry? He turned away from Sirius' lively one-sided discussion of how Avery's Wronsky Feint matched up with those in Quidditch history, and looked up into the stands. The first thing he noticed was Frank Longbottom and Alice Hanby, still seated in the front row amidst all the madness. The next thing he noticed, after searching the crowd for quite some time, was Lily, face drained of colour, body tense. From here, James could barely see her - but even upon a glance, her expression spoke of nothing but irritation.

He felt a pang of guilt. When Avery had hugged him - if one could legally call that a hug - he'd been so shocked that he hadn't been sure what to do. He'd known, of course, that she had some kind of unhealthy obsession with both him and Sirius, and that, if her reputation was anything to go by, they were only a few tacked on to the end of a very long list.

But he hadn't known she was quite _that _insane. To act that way toward him in front of all these people was completely ridiculous, and it infuriated James to no end. Now, he was sure, it wasn't just Lily who thought there was something going on between them - the whole school probably did, too. He wished he'd had the sense to throw her off of him, tell her he wasn't at all interested, and walk away. Of course, he'd been too stunned to do anything of the sort - and, truth be told, after such a clean victory over Ravenclaw, he couldn't seem to wipe the idiotic smile off his face.

The third thing he noticed was Peter lying face down in the gravel outskirts of the pitch, but that wasn't enough of an abnormality to really hold his attention right now.

"Prongs!" Sirius' voice registered in his mind as he watched Lily make her way out of the stands, a sympathetic Jamie at her heels. He turned to face him. "You didn't hear a word of that, did you?"

James shook his head sheepishly. "Sorry, Padfoot. I..." He glanced back at Lily's retreating figure, only to catch a brief glimpse of her vibrant hair before she disappeared into the mass exodus.

Sirius laughed and put a firm hand on James' shoulder. "S'alright. I'd be worried too if my girlfriend-to-be had seen something like _that_."

Although James knew he'd meant it as a joke, he couldn't help but notice Padfoot's gaze dart immediately over to Hannah, who was eyeing Avery with distaste. Sirius' expression turned dark, and James couldn't help but comment on this. After all, he'd been on the receiving end of so many lame, uncalled for Sirius-style comments about his feelings for Lily that this would only be one small step toward getting even.

"Speaking of 'girlfriends-to-be'," he said suggestively, raising his eyebrows, "would I be correct in thinking that you and Milton haven't gotten into a shouting match in... oh, about forty-eight hours?"

Sirius' attention snapped right back to him."Pffft, what are you talking about?" he scoffed, attempting to make a that's-completely-ridiculous-and-you're-an-idiot-for-even-thinking-it face, but failing miserably. When James rolled his eyes, Sirius finally cut the crap and relented. "Okay, okay. Maybe I haven't yelled at her in a while. But it's only because... I don't feel like it." He shrugged unconvincingly. "Yeah, that's it. I'm just not in the mood. But now that you mention it" - his eyes adopted an evil glint - "thanks for reminding me, Prongsie."

James groaned. "I wasn't _reminding _you, you idiot!" he said in exasperation, but it was too late - Sirius was already walking over to Hannah with that arrogant swagger of his, and James could only stand there and watch it happen.

"Oi, Milton!" Sirius called out.

Hannah, who was exchanging a high-five with little Ellen, swung around at the sound of her name. She was smiling at first, obviously still caught up in the euphoria of victory, but her features quickly rearranged themselves into a cold stare as she took in the sight of Sirius, standing there in all his haughtiness. "What do you want, Black?" she snapped.

Sirius smirked. "A bit slack with the Bludgers today, weren't you?" he said, folding his arms across his chest.

Hannah snorted. "Yeah, I guess I was. None of them hit you, did they?" She cocked her head in a challenging gesture, but behind the defiant expression, James could see a trace of hurt. He wanted to smack Sirius on the head for being such an idiot.

Sirius, unfortunately, wasn't ready to back down just yet. In fact, now that she was biting back and getting him all riled up, things were only getting worse. This was the nature of their arguments - he egged her on, she took the bait, and before long they were shouting at the top of their lungs, exchanging vicious retorts like nobody's business.

"See, that's why we shouldn't have Rogues on the team," he fired back. "They go all _rogue_ on you and turn on their own kind."

That jibe was enough for Hannah. "You miserable little twat!" she growled, surging forward - though both Regan and Ellen tried to hold her back - and reaching instinctively for her wand. She realised a moment too late that she was wearing her Quidditch robes, which were pocketless, and had therefore left her wand on her nightstand back in the dormitory. She stopped a few yards short of where Sirius stood, swore to herself, and scowled.

Sirius laughed out loud. "Can't hex me now, can you?" he gloated, grinning vindictively.

Hannah looked like she might burst into flames at any moment. Her shoulders rose up and down as she visibly battled with the anger rising up within her, and her eyes were narrowed with such vengeance that, had Peter been there in Padfoot's stead, he would have run away screaming and crying for his mother. Hannah's jaw was clenched as Sirius stared back, giving her a patronising what-are-you-going-to-do-now? sort of look. And then she made up her mind so quickly that Sirius didn't even have time to respond.

"Yeah, but I can still do _this_," she said, and lunged at him. With a single swing of her fist, she'd landed a punch cleanly on one side of his face.

Sirius staggered backward and fell (quite comically), holding a hand to his eye. "Shit!" he hissed. James couldn't tell if it was the shock or the pain that was getting to him; it was probably some combination of the two. Actually, he decided when Sirius couldn't seem to come to his senses, it was definitely the pain. Were those _tears_ he could see in Padfoot's unaffected eye?

"Miss Milton!"

The admonishing voice came, miraculously enough, from Professor Slughorn - and not McGonagall, as it so often did - who was bustling over this way in an attempt to intervene. He looked bewildered, to say the least, and his eyes were so wide it was a wonder they weren't falling right out of their sockets.

"As impressive as that was from somebody your size," he said, his jaw hanging loose even as he spoke, "I'm afraid I have no choice but to give you detention. And don't let me see you behave in such a way again!"

Hannah shrugged, straightened her robes, and said, "Fine by me. That was worth it - even better than last time." She started walking in the direction of the changing rooms, but stopped by Professor Slughorn to offer a few last words. "Name a time and place, Sluggy, and I'll be there."

James had to stifle a laugh at this. Regan, who stood a moderate distance behind Hannah, didn't quite manage to suppress hers. Probably realising that this was likely to get her into trouble, she coughed, grabbed Hannah's broom from where she'd discarded it, and took off with Ellen. The latter stuck her tongue out at Sirius, who looked absolutely livid. (This was no surprise; it wasn't often that he took such a blow to his pride - or his face.) Poor, flustered Professor Slughorn was speechless. He muttered something unintelligible and shuffled off, changing directions halfway when he realised he was heading for a solid wall.

"Well, that was nice," said James sarcastically, grabbing Sirius by the elbow and helping him get to his feet. "We should do it again sometime."

Sirius said nothing. He simply dusted off his robes and picked up his broomstick, keeping one hand on his eye all the while.

"So she actually did some real damage, then?" James queried.

Sirius's voice was so low, so angry, it was practically just a rumble. "Milton hits like a bloody man." He stopped, turned to James, and removed his hand from his face. His eye was open just a couple of millimetres, and the skin around looked tender, like it was on the verge of swelling. "Don't tell me she's given me a black eye _again_," he said through gritted teeth.

James could only laugh at this, although, admittedly, the wound _did_ look very painful. He felt like he should express some sympathy for his friend, but it also occurred to him that this was entirely Sirius' fault; if he hadn't provoked Hannah like that, he'd be walking away with two perfect eyes and his dignity intact.

"It's not funny, you idiot!" Sirius exclaimed, putting a hand to his eye again. "She's a lunatic, honestly! I can't believe I even bother to put up with her anymore." unscathed

James raised an eyebrow, partly to show off the fact that he, who didn't make a habit of striking up shouting matches with girls, still had full use of his facial muscles. "'Put up with her?'" he repeated. "I hate to say it, Padfoot, but I'm pretty sure she's the one putting up with you. Why don't you lay off for a while?"

Sirius made a noise in the back of his throat. "Whatever," he grumbled. Apparently, he didn't want to talk about it any longer, because he slowed his pace (he'd been going so fast in all his frustration that it had been a near-struggle for James to keep up with him) and changed the subject - kind of. "Anyway, we're not going anywhere near the change rooms until they've gone. If she sees me like this... it's going to be first year all over again."

James laughed again, meriting a dark look from Sirius. "Sorry," he said quickly. "It's just... I can't believe you two haven't wised up at all since you were _eleven_."

Sirius frowned. "Whatever," he said again, but it looked as though the point might finally have made a dent in his thick skull. _What a relief_, James thought, but he had to wonder how long that dent would last.

* * *

At half past three, Lily found herself lying on her four-poster with her head shoved under a pillow. It wasn't because she was tired - in fact, she'd had a surprising amount of energy today for somebody who'd been squawked out of bed at the most ungodly of hours. So no, she wasn't trying to go to sleep, although that would have been a welcome - and admittedly quite valid, she realised - escape from what she was about to face. She was, in fact, hiding. And because she'd decided to use toddler logic ("If I can't see it, then it can't see me"), this was where she wound up.

Unfortunately, it saw her.

"What's your problem, Lily?" it said. It had taken the form of a dark-haired, blue-eyed girl whose tongue was rapidly turning black from the ridiculous number of liquorice wands she'd consumed in the past half-hour. It sat on the edge of the bed and tried to coax her out from under her pillow.

"I'm. Not. Going," Lily said adamantly, although, with her face pressed into the mattress and all, it came out sounding more like, "Mmm. Nmph. Gfflgh."

The liquorice monster, however, got the message loud and clear. "It's just a Heads meeting, you wimp. You're not still hung up on what Skrewt Face did at the game, are you?" she asked, employing the nickname she'd adopted for Avery after the Quidditch tryouts, when she'd had to avoid using a nastier word in order to spare a young girl's innocence. "Because honestly, he looked as stunned as you did."

Lily, having suddenly rediscovered her need for oxygen, finally rolled over and removed the pillow from her head. "_Please_," she insisted after a sufficient intake of fresh air. "I saw his face. He was smiling like... like he used to smile at me." Ignoring Regan's classic _as-if _eye roll, she went on. "But anyway, it's not just that. Did you see what situation we were in the last time I spoke to him?"

Regan thought for a moment. "Nope," she said. "Want to fill me in?"

Lily groaned. "Actually, no. I don't ever want to talk about it again. So if you'll excuse me..." She picked up the pillow and threw it over her head once again.

"Lily, you're pathetic, you know that?" Regan said. Lily felt the mattress spring up a bit as she got to her feet. "And you _know_ I usually reserve that word for Wormbutt, but in this case, I think I can make an exception."

Lily gasped, tearing the pillow away. "You did _not_ just compare me to Peter Pathettigrew," she said defensively, narrowing her eyes.

Regan, who was currently biting into her umpteenth liquorice wand, put a hand on her hip and raised her eyebrows. "Damn straight I did," she said, narrowly dodged the pillow that was aimed with alarming accuracy at her face. "And I'm going to keep on doing it until you leave this room and go to your stupid meeting." She grabbed Lily by the wrist and tugged.

"Regan...," Lily whined, turning herself into a deadweight in order to resist her friend's incredible strength.

"I mean it!" shouted Regan, refusing to let go. "You're a wannabe, a loser! Your friends only keep you around because they feel sorry for you! Your mummy sends you bonnets in the mail!"

"Okay, okay!" Lily stood up and shook Regan off of her. "Sheesh, Reegs - you're actually making me feel sorry for the guy."

Regan's expression turned dark - _very _dark. "DO NOT PITY HIM!" she barked at Lily, who suddenly felt like she should be cowering to the ground. "By all means, skip your damn meeting, but do not waste your sympathies on him!"

Lily began to back slowly out of the room. "Er, what I meant was... Man, I'd hate to be Pettigrew." She coughed. "Because he's the biggest loser that ever walked the planet."

Regan straightened up and smiled. "Much better. Now off you go!" She gave a jolly wave and ushered Lily out the door. "Tell Tongs I say hi!"

As the door closed behind her, Lily rolled her eyes. If there was one person she could count on to help her take her mind off things, it was Regan. Mind you, her techniques usually involved crazy antics of some sort; yelling, physical contact, shamelessly bashing Peter even if it was completely irrelevant to the matter at hand - the whole Regan Package. Still, it did the trick, and as Lily wandered down the stairs, she realised she had momentarily forgotten what had made her so reluctant to leave in the first place.

Unfortunately, with Regan far behind her, Lily's thoughts slowly drifted back to the place where she didn't want them to go. As much as she hated to recall the incident, it all came rushing back to her in one painfully embarrassing memory as she headed out the portrait hole.

* * *

She'd been barely alert before it happened, and attempting to make the very same journey she'd just made across the common room and out the portrait hole. She hadn't gotten far - by the time she'd reached the couches, she'd given in and collapsed into a heap on the soft, red cushions.

She hadn't dreamt for the first hour or so. Her mind had been too exhausted to contemplate anything, and so it had vacated her body entirely. And then, just a few minutes before she'd come to her senses, she'd had this feeling of being wrapped in a cocoon of sorts, pressed up close to something that radiated heat - the fireplace, maybe? But no, certainly that would have be scalding her skin - with her hand closed around something soft and warm. She'd felt cosy, safe and comforted. _Don't let this be a dream_, she'd stupidly wished, a smile forming on her lips.

The thing in her hand had twitched, and before she'd had the chance to look down and see what it was, her eyes had snapped open. So had his. This was followed by several seconds of confusion, in which they'd stared into each other's eyes, each trying to decide whether or not they were still dreaming, and, if not, wondering how the other had gotten so close.

And then Lily had screamed.

"What the hell are you doing?" she'd shrieked, sitting bolt upright in her state of panic. "Get away from me, Potter!" She'd snatched up a pillow and started swatting him with it, not sure what else to do. After all, she still wasn't sure if this was real or not - but imaginary James or no, he still deserved to be pounded with a pillow. What had he been _thinking_, sleeping so close to her? And why in Merlin's name had they been _holding hands_?

"Whoa! Hold on!" James, who'd looked just as befuddled as she'd felt, had said. This had caused Lily to cease her attack, but she'd continued to glare at him in accusation. His glasses had sat askew, and his hair had looked even more tousled than usual; clearly, he'd been asleep nearly as long as she had. Still, there was no denying that this was heavily suspicious. And since she had been completely alone on the couch when she'd fallen asleep, this could only have been his doing.

"Would you care to explain yourself?" Lily had demanded, tossing the pillow aside vigorously and folding her arms.

He'd looked down at the couch upon which they sat, his brow creased in confusion. "Does this look natural to you?" he'd asked, gesturing at the cushions.

"What the hell are you-" she'd started, but stopped as soon as she looked down. There was no longer one couch here, but _two_, pushed into the centre of the room so that they had become a boxed in, bed-like structure. It had occurred to her then that unless James had a _seriously_ twisted mind (pun very much intended) there was no way he had set this up himself. She'd looked up, made eye contact, and they'd shared a suspicious glance.

The synchronisation of their thoughts - and their voices - had been somewhat frightening as they'd both yelled out, "SIRIUS!" and jumped off the couch, looking around for their assailant. Unfortunately, they'd leapt up just in time to see the portrait hole slam shut behind him - or, well, they could only assume it was him - and hear the Fat Lady start screeching abuse down the corridor.

They'd looked at each other again, this time with identical expressions of frustration on their faces.

"Next time I see him...," Lily had threatened, shaking her head and gritting her teeth.

James had laughed darkly. "Oh, don't worry," he'd said. "He'll have heard it from me by the time you get to him."

Lily had kept her face completely straight as she said, "Oh, there's no 'hearing' involved in what I'm going to do to him."

This time, James' laugh had been genuine, and this had eased the tension between the two of them. Unfortunately, this also made it more awkward, and Lily found that she had absolutely nothing to say. They'd stood in silence, occasionally stealing glances at each other, and when their eyes had met involuntarily, Lily had cleared her throat and made her exit.

"Er, I'm just going to... go... now," she'd said oh-so-smoothly, and turned around. Even now, she remembered the feeling of her cheeks heating up to what must have been an outrageous temperature as she strode quickly away, taking refuge in the girls' dormitory.

* * *

And then, of course, there had been the Quidditch game.

A sane fragment of her mind - if she did possess such a thing - begged her to believe that she'd been observing from far away, and therefore couldn't possibly have gotten the right impression from watching the scene unfold. But she couldn't seem to shake the image from her head; he hadn't done anything to stop it, he'd been smiling his head off, and it had hurt to watch. Those three things were all that mattered to Lily now.

The two emotions that were nagging at her - humiliation and resentment - battled it out in her head until it was pointless trying to distinguish between them, let alone identify which one took priority.

Lily arrived at the Heads Room in record time - and cursed herself for it. She had a tendency to walk very quickly when her mind was preoccupied, and when she was tied up with memories that made her as angry as these ones did, her paces became determinedly longer and more furious without her even realising it.

Just as she was approaching the door and reaching an arm out for the handle, it swung open right in front of her face - and there was James, dressed in a white t-shirt sporting the logo of some Quidditch team and casual black pants. Lily couldn't help but note that he looked staggeringly attractive standing there, and she found it near impossible to tear her eyes away from him. Moments ago, she'd been focused on two simple things - embarrassment and her anger at him. As she took in the sight of him, she found these things were washed out of her mind and, try as she might to hold onto them, he looked so damn sexy standing in that doorway that they didn't seem significant anymore.

"Lily!" he said pleasantly, grinning from ear to ear. "I was just about to check the common room for you. Thought you might have forgotten."

Lily smirked. "Yeah, sorry. I, er... kind of got caught up with Regan," she lied, annoyed at how awkward she sounded.

James laughed. "I see. No explanation needed." He seemed to realise at that moment that he was blocking her path, so he stepped out of the doorway and gestured for her to come inside, as if inviting her into his own private lair. That wasn't too far off, Lily supposed, except that it was _their_ private lair. She almost laughed at the thought.

To her horror, once she'd stepped inside, James made straight for the couch in the corner. Lily had been hoping they might use the table instead - but apparently, James had already gotten over yesterday's events, and didn't find anything remotely awkward about sitting together on the very piece of furniture that had recently brought them such severe humiliation. Lily, on the other hand, decided she may very well hold a grudge against sofas for the rest of her life.

The couch in this room was slightly less menacing. For one thing, it was the only one in the room, which limited its pranking possibilities. For another, it wasn't long enough to stretch out fully, and was a nice, neutral shade of light brown - a pleasant contrast to the fierce red of those in the Gryffindor common room.

Nevertheless, when James stationed himself at one end of it, Lily opted for the armchair instead. It was the safest choice, mostly because, well... It wasn't a couch. And it was free of boys with smouldering eyes and adorably windswept hair.

She felt almost awkward, sitting so far away from him; he didn't fail to notice it, either. He gave a little chuckle when she sat down, as if recognising her reasons for doing so. This made Lily a little uncomfortable and got her thinking - if he could get over it already, why couldn't she?

"So, uh... Dumbledore spoke to me this morning, and he wants us to think about Halloween," James started, all business now. "If I recall correctly, his words were..." He cleared his throat and did an impressive impersonation of the headmaster. "'_I believe the feast has become remarkably dull, my dear boy. I would be delighted if you and Miss Evans would arrange something more, ah, fashionable for the students to enjoy this year. I'm afraid I'm not in tune with such things, being an old coot and all._'"

Lily giggled, knowing he'd tacked that last bit on the end just to make her laugh. "Well, he's got the last part right," she said, eliciting a smile from James. "But what exactly does he want us to do? I thought the feast was..." She racked her brain for the word. "Tradition."

James shrugged, but not in an attempt to brush off the question - he appeared to be deep in thought. "I'm not quite sure," he said after a moment. "Something _fashionable_." He raised an eyebrow. "Although I'm not sure what that means, coming from Dumbledore."

"Candelabras and tail coats?" Lily suggested, giving a helpless shrug and an impish grin.

His laugh was loud and hearty. "I'll write that down," he joked, but then his face snapped into semi-seriousness. "Actually, we probably should be writing some stuff down. Do you have any parchment?"

Lily shook her head apologetically. "I didn't think to bring anything with me."

"That's okay," was his reply, followed by "just a sec" as he sprang to his feet. He darted upstairs and returned a moment later with a roll of parchment in one hand. In the other, he clutched two quills and a bottle of ink. He kneeled in front of the wooden coffee table, and Lily joined him, slightly less reluctant to cross the space between them now that there wasn't a couch involved.

"Alright," he said, and they each picked up a quill. "Hallowe'en. Fashionable. Brainstorm. Go."

They jotted down ideas for a half hour or so, discussing the possibilities at length, finding that some sounded hopeful and rejecting others straight off the bat. After failing to come up with anything that they really liked, they got to the point where they were taking turns suggesting the most ridiculous, least-likely-to-be-staff-approved ideas they could come up with. Lily found herself in stitches, rocking back and forth where she sat next to James on the floor, enjoying herself without regret but wondering all the while how she could be having this much fun withJames Potter - especially when they were in the middle of a meeting that was supposed to be official.

"Okay, uh...," James said at one point, pausing to come up with his latest suggestion. "The students pair up and duel to the death. Then we have a tournament, and the last one alive... wins. Except they'll probably have to transfer to another school at that point."

Lily howled with laughter, clutching at her stomach and throwing her head back. "Dumbledore will definitely approve of that," she managed to utter between bursts of hysterics, and then gasped as she had a mini-epiphany. "No, wait - I've got it! How about we just chuck everybody in a room with Peeves? It'd be kind of like a living horror movie for them. And that way, they'd be out of our faces for an hour - or five - and we could probably hijack the castle in the meantime."

James laughed and said, "Good one," but titled his head in confusion. "Except... what's a horror movie?" he asked. The words sounded awkward on his tongue, as if he'd never spoken them before.

Oops. Lily snorted, having forgotten that James didn't understand the Muggle term. It sometimes baffled her, how all these clever wizarding kids went through their entire lives so much as knowing what a bicycle was.

"Kind of like a moving picture," she explained. "Except... with a lot of blood and guts and screaming and death."

James nodded, as if seriously considering her proposition. "Okay, so we have duel-to-the-death... or locked-in-a-cupboard-with-your-worst-nightmare. Which one sounds more 'fashionable' to you?"

Lily deliberated for a moment. She was going to try and offer some witty reply, but a thought had seeded in her brain and was rapidly expanding into something that, despite its comedic roots, might actually pass as a valid, almost practical idea.

"Hey," she said suddenly, "have you ever heard of a haunted house?"

She was taking it slowly, being cautious in case their very different roots caused another not-on-the-same-page moment. This time, however, James nodded and expelled a short chuckle. "Have I ever _heard_ of one? Hell, Lily, I used to live next door to one."

Now it was Lily's turn to laugh. Another thing she had a tendency to forget was that many of the things she'd believed in as a child raised in a Muggle community really _did_ exist out there. It had been strange for Lily, believing so irrefutably in something until her more sceptical sister told her it was nothing more than a child's tale, and then entering a world where these things were more real than she could ever have imagined.

"This is going to sound strange, so just work with me here," she said, and James nodded in response, giving her his undivided attention. "What if we sectioned off some part of the school - say, the Quidditch pitch or the dungeons - and turned it into a haunted house?"

James took some time to consider this. "You know, that could work," he finally said, his eyes lighting up as he apparently had further insight into the matter. "We'd probably want to use the Quidditch pitch, because it's more flexible design-wise. But other than the set-up, it shouldn't be too hard - we actually could use Peeves. And some of the ghosts might be willing to offer their services. Mind you, everyone's used to them, so we're going to have to come up with some _really_ scary things..."

They rolled with the idea for a while. Oddly enough, it wasn't until now that Lily realised just how well they could work together as Head Boy and Head Girl when they put their minds to it. They used the other side of the parchment to jot down more specific ideas, and soon had at least ten inches of material to work with. It was a highly efficient process; once they'd exhausted their creativity, they went back over the list and crossed out or altered certain items, depending on whether or not they seemed plausible. They had a week to pull this off - that was, assuming the idea cleared Dumbledore - and Lily felt confident that they could do it, especially with this newfound ability to converse smoothly with one another.

That was until things took a turn for the worst.

When their inspiration was running dry and they were too lazy to revise their lists anymore, they resorted again to joking and suggesting things that would never be allowed, or were too ridiculous to even consider.

"I think we could hire Regan," Lily suggested at one point. "She'd be happy to torment people all day long." She paused. "Well, we might have to bribe her, but she sells out easy for sugar."

"Or," said James, a line of thought appearing on his forehead, "we could stick Sirius and Hannah in there. It'd be a wonder if anybody had any eardrums left after that, but hey, at least it sort of fits the theme."

After a short laugh, they both fell silent. Naturally, it was a valid suggestion, but it got Lily thinking about her friend's strange behaviour. Hannah had come away from the Quidditch game this morning with a bittersweet smile on her face and a set of bruised knuckles. Lily hadn't asked questions. She knew all she needed to know; something had gone down with Sirius, evidently, and it had turned her mood around again. She'd been spending more time than ever in front of the mirror - or rather, in the bathroom in general - over the past month or so, and Lily was concerned. Not only this, but she'd been eating very little, and often skipped meals altogether. Her recurring excuses were: "I'm not hungry" and "I have better things to do," but she often heard Hannah's stomach growling in the middle of the day, and she wondered what "better things" (in other words, mischief) she could be getting up to without the Rogues' backup. Even Regan was out of the know where these things were concerned, and this was unheard of - much like Jamie and Lily, Regan and Hannah told each other _everything_. But apparently, Hannah's unspoken past of honesty had wavered (also something she shared with Jamie), and considering how long she and Regan had been friends, this could only mean there was something really serious going on.

Which brought her to her next point. She could safely say that Sirius was the prime - if not the only - cause of Hannah's black moods. (Regan, she thought, would commend her for such frequent pun usage.) He seemed to take pleasure in making people feel like dirt, and Hannah was his favourite target. She knew that Hannah never missed an opportunity to fight back, but Sirius was almost always the one to start these things, and he seemed to have some tough outer layer that deflected her razor-sharp comebacks like armour. Clearly, it didn't bother him the same way it did her. Lily felt a sudden and inexplicable fury toward the Marauders in general.

"Lily? Are you alright?" That was James, looking at her with concern. Apparently, she wasn't very adept at masking her anger; she was shocked to discover her jaw was clenched, her fists balled up against her jeans as she leaned against the base of the couch.

She tried to swallow her rage for now and said simply, "Yeah. I'm fine."

"Are you sure?" James pressed. "Because for a minute there, you looked like you wanted to punch something."

Lily gave a short laugh. "Mmm, actually, not something - _somebody_," she admitted.

"What, are you still mad at Sirius for that stupid couch prank?" he chuckled. "Because actually, he told me it was Hannah who did it."

Lily turned her head in his direction and met his eyes with a defiant stare. "And you believed him?"

He looked somewhat helpless as he fished for a reply. "Well, no, not exactly," he finally stuttered. "But come on, Lily - you have to admit, it could have been either of them."

Lily couldn't stop the blush from rising to her cheeks at the reminder of that painful sequence of events. She'd hoped this wouldn't come up in conversation, but now that it had, she was on the defensive, and wouldn't let it go. "Only _Sirius_ has a mind that sick," Lily declared, crossing her arms resolutely. "I'll admit, Hannah might have thought about it, but she would never actually _do_ something like that."

James' eyebrows shot up. "Since when?" he asked. "She certainly seems like the impulsive type to me. Didn't anybody tell you what she did to Sirius this morning?" There was a hint of a smirk on his face as he said these last words.

Lily couldn't believe what she was hearing. She stood abruptly, her mouth gaping open in angry disbelief. "Are you kidding me?" she demanded. She put on a mocking tone. "Oh, poor, abused Sirius and his broken ego. It must be _so_ hard for him to be beaten up by a girl - especially the one he insists on verbally pulverising every time he crosses her path."

James stood up too, but it was more a defensive gesture than any kind of challenge. "Whoa, Lily. Just listen for a sec-"

"No, you listen!" Lily was shocked at how quickly her outrage was taking hold. "Do you have any bloody idea what he's doing to her? She's... she's..." Lily searched for the right word to use, all the while trying to break past the rapidly-forming lump in her throat. "She's completely broken every time she walks away from him, James. She won't talk to anyone, she's angry all the time, and I don't think she's eaten in a week." She stopped there, intending to continue after a quick break, but found she was so fuming that her breathing had become quick and shallow, rendering her unable to speak.

James took a sympathetic step toward her and put his hand on her elbow. Despite the electric current that ran up her arm, Lily held her ground. It was difficult to look intimidating when he stood a good head taller than her, but she managed to keep her glower firmly in place.

"I had no idea it was that bad," James said sincerely. "Look, about the Quidditch match, I didn't mean it that way. Sirius deserved that - he was being an arse." He drew in a deep breath and then let it out again. "It's just... he's had some pretty rough things going on this year and last... and it's probably clouding his judgement. He doesn't always realise how hard he's hitting and... I think you should cut him a little bit of slack."

Lily, who'd heard enough, jerked out of his grasp. As soon as she did this, his eyes filled with shock and hurt.

"You want me to give him slack?" she said vehemently. "Why doesn't he start with a proper apology to Hannah, and then maybe I'll consider taking him off my hit list. And what is _with _you Marauders and all these 'things' you've got going on?" She had to ask, because earlier today, Jamie had claimed that Remus had fed her a similar story in his attempts to avoid her. The recollection of the conversation Jamie had had with the Rogues just before lunch (in which she'd divulged every detail concerning the Remus/Frank fiasco) struck another chord in Lily's brain, and it only served to make her more furious - at the Marauders, and at the entire male population. "Which reminds me," she snapped, "Sirius isn't the only one who has explaining to do. I never expected it from Remus, you know." She shook her head in disappointment. "He's the most tolerable of you lot. But then apparently, he's been blowing Jamie off every time she tries to talk to him. She's in almost as bad a state as Hannah right now."

James fidgeted uncomfortably, his gaze shifting from her face to the floor and then back again. "Lily," he said gravely, "do you ever think about anything other than your friends?"

This threw her. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?" And how was she supposed to respond to such a question? "Of... of c-course I do," she stammered in annoyance.

James lifted a doubtful eyebrow.

"W-well, no, I suppose. Not often," she admitted with a sigh. Nevertheless, he wasn't going to corner her that easily. "Still!" she protested. "It's not like that's a bad thing. In fact, I think _you_ could stand to think a little more about _your_ friends. How can you just stand around and let them hurt people like this?"

She'd meant for it to get to him, but was in no way prepared for the deep hurt that fell across his face at these words. She felt so guilty for putting that look on his handsome features that she considered apologising - until she recalled one more thing that had been nagging at her all morning long, and decided that he didn't deserve her sympathy.

"Oh, wait," she said bitterly. "I almost forgot - _you're _too busy hooking up with fifth years."

Both of James' hands shot up to his hair (a sure sign that he was severely distressed) as he groaned in frustration. "Lily, I _swear_, it was _not_ what it looked like." He said the words with such fierce conviction that Lily found it difficult not to believe him. "She jumped on me," he pleaded with her. "I honestly didn't see it coming; I was too shocked to do anything about it." He paused, and a sad sort of smile rose upon his lips. "And besides - since when do you care?"

That was a good question - not because Lily didn't know its answer, but because she refused to say it out loud. She cared because it killed her inside to see James smile that way at another girl. She cared because she secretly wished it had been _her _in Avery's place (minus the whole slutty attack factor, of course). Was she going to tell him that? Heavens, no.

"I don't," she scoffed. "Get real, Potter."

Another flash of hurt crossed his features, and the guilt in the pit of Lily's stomach was back. In her heart, she hated to do this, but her mind insisted that there was no way she could stand down right now.

This time, instead of standing back and waiting for her to abuse him some more, James took a determined step forward, almost closing the distance between them. Lily was taken by surprise, and the defiant glare she'd been trying so hard to maintain faltered.

When he spoke, his voice was quiet but passionate, and his eyes bored holes through her. "What do you want from me, Lily?" he asked. "I swear, I've done everything in my power to be the good guy this year. I tell Sirius off almost as much as you do these days. And Remus... I don't have a clue what's going on with him and Jamie, because it's _his_ business, not mine. As for you, it's only one mistake - which, okay, I'll admit I could have handled better - and I'm back to being _Potter_ again." He shook his head and clenched his teeth. "You expect too much of me, and you know it."

With their gazes locked together so intensely, it was like two conflicting spells had met in the space between them; Lily could practically see the balance wavering from one end to the other, and as his final words hit her, her resolve crumbled, and his gaze broke through, victorious.

She hadn't thought about it that way before.

Come to think of it, it made a lot of sense.

Maybe it was because of his miraculous turnaround this year, from insufferable prat to noble, responsible young man. Where her standards were concerned, she'd kept bar way above him in past years, determined that he would never reach her, because she refused to let his asinine, immature ways win her over. Maybe it was because he'd already shown her every ounce of adoration he possibly could; from "I love you" to snap proposals, nothing surprised her anymore. Nothing was good enough.

"James, I...," she started, her voice catching in her throat.

James shook his head, a smiling . "I'm trying, Lily. I really am. Why don't you get that?"

She used to take pleasure in the moments when she could tear him down - or at least fend him off - with her snarky comments. But right now, it felt like a hand was squeezing her heart, making her chest ache like crazy. She wanted nothing more than to make him feel better, whatever it took. In what was probably - scratch that, _definitely _- a moment of temporary insanity, Lily stepped forward and put her arms around him, feeling the soft fabric of his t-shirt against her cheek as she leaned into his chest. She was close to tears but managed to refrain from crying, biting her lip and hoping to convey her apology through actions instead.

After freezing up for a moment, James hesitantly wrapped his arms around her in return. One arm reached around and caressed her shoulder, while the other pulled her closer to him in a protective gesture. Everything felt so absolutely _right_ in that moment that Lily couldn't believe she'd ever felt repulsed by the thought of being close to him. At the reminder of all the time she'd spent hating his guts, she sniffed - and realised she'd done a shoddy job of holding back the tears. They were rolling down her cheeks now, though she wasn't sure exactly why. She assumed it was a build-up of many different emotions.

"I'm sorry," she whispered into his chest, closing her eyes.

James said nothing. He simply held her tighter, as if she might slip out of his grasp at any moment.

As if he would never get the chance to hold her again.

* * *

Jamie slipped into the common room after dinner with a concrete plan in mind; walk quickly, avoid eye contact, and pray for the life of her that she didn't run into a certain Remus Lupin.

Like most plans she came up with (save for this morning's moment of brilliance with Alice and Frank), this one was a total flop.

She was so intent on keeping her head down that she walked straight into him as he was exiting the boys dormitories. Her head bumped right into his shoulder, and they both stumbled back, surprised. Evidently, Remus had also been distracted.

"Oh... I'm... I'm sorry," Jamie stuttered. She couldn't decide whether or not to look at him, so her eyes kept darting back and forth between his stormy grey ones and the (comparatively rather hideous) wooden floor.

When Remus spoke, it was completely toneless. "It's okay," he said simply, and started to walk away without another word.

_What the heck, _Jamie thought, changing her mind in a split second. _If I'm going to do it, I might as well do it now_.

"Remus, wait," she called out, causing him to swing around and face her.

"What?" was his response. This time, he sounded impatient. Jamie wondered if she might have interrupted something important. Then she noticed the unusual pallour of his skin, the circles under his eyes, the limpness of his hair... In short, Remus did not look well at all. Granted, he always looked a little bit under the weather, but this was different. This was... disconcerting.

Jamie cleared her throat. "I was... hoping we might be able to, er, talk." She met his eyes timidly, bracing herself for his reaction.

Remus put a hand to his forehead and exhaled heavily, shifting his gaze to some point in the distance. "Jamie," he said stiffly, as if trying desperately to suppress a wave of frustration, "I can't. I don't have time for this right now. I'm sorry. It's just... I can't. Later, okay?"

Jamie's heart sank like lead to the bottom of her stomach. _Of course_, she thought sullenly. She'd suspected he might not want to talk to her, but the fact that he was using the "I can't do this" speech again? That told her everything she needed to know. She knew it was all her fault. She'd ruined everything. He hated her guts now. This was deeper than the Marauder-Rogue rivalry; that opposition was expected of them, but this was very personal, and Jamie knew that things would likely never go back to the way they were before.

She swallowed hard, fighting against tears. "Okay," she said, her voice escaping as nothing more than a tiny, strained sound. She kept her eyes on the ground and walked past him, shuffling off toward the dormitory stairs in a mournful daze.

She didn't turn around once, but if she had, she'd have seen him standing perfectly still, his gaze trailing longingly after her.

* * *

It was Monday afternoon. Lily opened her eyes.

At first, the world seemed no different. She still felt like herself, and her surroundings were exactly the same as before. The charmed ceiling - like that of the Great Hall - still reflected the thunder and lightning outside. Regan, Hannah and Jamie stood in various locations around the room; nothing had changed there.

But after a second or two, Lily realised something.

She had four legs.

And a tail.

And soft russet fur covering her body from head to toe. Or rather... _hoof_.

"Lily, you did it!" Hannah squealed, running over to her with wide eyes. Her mood had taken an upward swing once more now that the Rogues were back to plotting against the Marauders in the Room of Requirement, and clearly, this progress pleased her. She assessed Lily's Animagus form and gave her an approving nod. "I like it," she said, and grinned.

Regan was right behind her, and felt the need to put in her two sickles' worth. "Yeah," she said. "Except for the eyes - those are _seriously_ creepy."

_What do you mean? _Lily wanted to ask, but (obviously) could not utter a word.

Hannah seemed to sense that she was confused, and nodded, saying, "You might want to work on those. They're still, er... green. And very human."

She wanted to roll her eyes at them, but, deciding that would probably creep them out even more, she turned around instead. There was a mirror on the far wall, right near the circle of armchairs, so she headed in that direction to get a good look at herself. Unfortunately, she wasn't yet accustomed to the whole four-legs thing. Before she could get far, her front knees buckled and she fell to the ground, a tangle of frightfully delicate limbs.

Regan snickered. "_That's_ why it pays to be a bird," she pointed out.

"Oh, please," said Hannah, who was also laughing. "Need I remind you of the first time you flew? If I recall correctly, the pair of us almost _died_."

"Don't exaggerate, Hanniekins. We were fine. You overreacted."

"Overreacted, eh? Why don't you go suspend yourself fifty feet in the air and see how _you _react?"

"Sure. I can do that - I'm a bird. Which is exactly my point."

"That wasn't the point, you idiot..."

While the two of them continued to bicker, Lily slowly raised herself to her feet and started walking again. She concentrated on finding a rhythm and, soon enough, was travelling smoothly across the room. She stopped in front of the mirror. Sure enough, there they were - her own eyes, as green as can be, looking eerily out of place set into the narrow head of her deer form. Hannah was right - she would have to work on perfecting that part of the transformatoin. Otherwise, she thought she looked pretty decent; her coat was sleek and a pretty shade of red-brown, with white patches around her tail, nose and eyes. Her ears were upright and alert, flicking in all directions as she took in the various sounds in the room - the waterfall running, the thunder clapping overhead, Hannah and Regan arguing...

A sudden thought entered Lily's mind - where was Jamie? She'd been there before, when the four of them had gathered in the centre of the room to attempt their transformations for the umpteenth time that month (and Regan to "observe their technique", since she had nearly perfected her own skills already), but come to think of it, Lily hadn't seen her since. She looked back at Hannah and Regan; they were alone, wrapped up in their little play-fight. She did a quick scan of the room with her newly sharpened senses, but couldn't see Jamie anywhere.

Lily crossed the room and snatched up her robes in her teeth. Then, she made for the armchair circle and ducked out of sight.

A few seconds later, after a surprisingly easy change-back, Lily stepped out from behind the chair with her robes wrapped loosely around her. "Guys!" she called to Hannah and Regan, who reluctantly stopped teasing each other and turned to her face her, looking sheepish. "Have you seen Jamie?"

The two of them looked casually around, as if this thought hadn't occurred to them until now.

"Nope," said Hannah. "I thought she was just behind us, but... I guess not."

Lily rolled her eyes at their nonchalance, but wasn't terribly bothered by it. Jamie was probably off in some corner of the room, trying to find some peace and quiet. After all, it couldn't be easy to transform with Hannah and Regan making such a racket.

She cased the room for her, checking by the waterfall, behind the cabinets... She even looked up to the there-but-not-there ceiling, wondering if there might have been another mishap like before, even though it was highly unlikely. Just as she brought her eyes back down to the ground, she noticed something appear from behind one of the elaborate marble pillars; a flicker of soft grey fur, just like the tail Jamie had accidentally donned during their very first Animagus practice session.

Lily smiled knowingly and hurried over there, wondering what she would find - was Jamie fully transformed? Partially transformed? Was she freaking out over her tail again, or was she okay with it this time?

"Jamie?" she said as she approached. Her friend - still human, save for the tail - was crouched down, leaning on the pillar, her head in her hands. She didn't appear to be upset - just severely frustrated. "What are you doing over here?"

Jamie looked up. "Sorry," she said. "It was too loud over there." She swallowed hard and pressed a palm to her forehead in exasperation. "I can't get rid of this damn tail."

Lily lowered herself and sat down beside her friend, pulling the robes more snugly around her frame. "You've done it before," she said, trying to be encouraging. "Can't you just... concentrate really hard?"

Jamie shook her head. "I can't. I can't focus on anything. There's too much on my mind." She wrapped her arms around her knees and placed her chin on top of them. Lily recognised that look in her eyes; it hadn't been present this morning after her master plan with Frank, but she'd seen it many times before - for instance, down at the lake on the night of the strip poker incident, just before the Marauders had arrived. She'd been sulking then, as if she'd given up all hope. Lily wondered what had happened to bring that expression back, but thought she had a fair idea already.

"Did you talk to Remus?" she asked quietly.

Jamie drew in a slow breath, let it out, and then nodded. "Lily," she said, turning to face her, "I think that was the last straw, yesterday. I think... I think I lost him." Her blue eyes were filling with tears, her lower lip trembling. As Lily wrapped a comforting arm around her friend and let her cry into her shoulder, Jamie let out a noise that sounded like a sob crossed with a bitter laugh. "And what's funny," she said in an ironic tone, "is that I never even had him in the first place." She sniffed. "God, I'm such an _idiot_..."

Lily hugged her friend tighter. "Don't say that, Jay," she said, trying to sound soothing and adamant at the same time. "You know what? I bet you just got the wrong impression. Remus is probably in one of those moods, you know? When he gets all snappy and impatient and avoids everybody? Don't take it too personally. He'll come around."

"No," Jamie said with morose finality. Apparently, there was no talking her out of this state of mind. She sighed, lifting her head from Lily's shoulder. "I think I just need to forget about him for a while."

Lily nodded in understanding. Then, she stood up, clutching her robes around her with one hand and holding the other out for Jamie to take. "Come on," she said, offering a sympathetic smile. "I'll help you forget. And we're going to use this-" she pointed at the tail "-to our advantage."

"What do you mean?" Jamie asked hesitantly as Lily helped her to her feet.

Lily grinned conspiratorially. "Well, the way I see it, you're already partway there. So instead of trying to get rid of it, why don't you push it further? Go for the whole thing, I mean."

Jamie's forehead creased with worry. "What if I get stuck, though?"

Shaking her head stubbornly, Lily said, "You won't. I just did it, and changing back is the easy part."

"You did it?" Jamie's eyes lit up with awe.

"What, did you think I was taking fashion tips from Regan?" Lily joked, gesturing at her scantily clad self. Regan's little birdie escapade hadn't gone unmentioned by Hannah - on the contrary, she'd hastened at the chance to tell the story, and it had since become something of an inside joke between the Rogues. "Anyway, like I said, you'll be fine. Just shove _everything_ else out of your mind. Tell yourself nothing matters but this - you're _so_ close. Keep telling yourself that, and you'll get it."

Jamie nodded. She took several steps back, relaxed her stance, and closed her eyes.

* * *

Not ten minutes later, when Lily had just changed back after her fourth transformation (during which she had finally managed to get rid of the "creepy eyes"), and while Regan was attempting to coach an irritated Hannah through her first, a silver fox darted out from the corner of the room and scurried past them.

Regan let out a whoop of delight while Lily applauded enthusiastically.

"I told you so!" said the latter, and then laughed. "Wow. Two of us in less than an hour - we're actually making progress."

While the other two were excitedly watching fox-Jamie test out her new legs, Hannah stood back, displeased by her personal lack of said progress.

"This isn't fair," she said, planting her hands on her hips. The others turned to face her. "How come all of you have done it, and I haven't even come close yet?" She shook her head in disbelief. "I mean, I was the one who came up with this whole scheme in the first place."

Lily took a step toward her, an understanding smile on her face. "You'll get it, Han," she said. Right now, in her state of irritation, Hannah didn't appreciate the gesture. It seemed condescending.

"Even if I do get it," Hannah said bitterly, beginning to pace across the room, "there's no way I'll perfect it before Halloween."

The Rogues had set the thirty-first of October as their deadline, not because they had a specific plan in mind, but because Halloween was a notable milestone in the school year. Things would only get crazier after that, and they would have little time to practice with midterm exams creeping up their backs. They just hoped this new disguising skill would be of some use to them before the year was over.

Regan scoffed. "You're taking this all _way_ too seriously, Han. You know it's not the end of the world if you take a little longer than that."

For some unidentifiable reason, this just served to spark Hannah's anger further. She didn't like arguing with her friends, but Regan's attitude bothered her; why were the rest of them taking this so lightly? Couldn't they see that this was practically the only chance they had left at uniting against the Marauders - at coming together as a group? Right near the beginning of the year, she'd sensed the split coming. Lily was starting to feel differently toward James, and Jamie's loyalty was wavering, too. Even Regan had taken a more light-hearted approach to the feud, as if the whole thing were simply a joke. It wasn't. The Marauders already had a foothold in their ranks, and their grip was becoming too strong; Hannah wanted to make them see that they couldn't just manipulate the Rogues like that. She felt like she was losing her friends to the very people who, six years ago, they had sworn to despise and combat for the rest of their scholarly lives.

Of course, Hannah had done a little "fraternising with the enemy" as well, but she continued to tell herself that that had been a moment of weakness and nothing more. Besides, Sirius had made it clear at the Quidditch pitch yesterday that the strange flash of civility had been a one-off, and that it wasn't going to happen again. It hadn't changed anything between them - at least, she didn't think so.

All of that aside, she seemed to be the only one who really invested anything in the so-called war these days. As a result, the Marauders probably thought they were going to have an easy win on their hands.

As far as Hannah was concerned, they had to strike back before it was too late - before their alliances crumbled and the Rogues were no more. She wanted to laugh at the theatrics of it all, but right now, laughing was out of the question. She had to make them see the truth.

"No, see, that's where you're wrong," she said firmly, narrowing her eyes. She continued to pace back and forth, not quite realising how much she resembled Professor McGonagall, giving her misbehaving students a good, old-fashioned telling off. She liked to think of this more as a pep talk. "You all seem to think that this is just fun and games, but it's not. Like I said to Lily yesterday, it's as if we've forgotten how to be the Rogues - and if we do that, then we lose this whole thing, and _they_ win. We have to pull ourselves together and fight back." She paused for a breath and Regan took this opportunity to break in.

"But Han," she said as she and Lily exchanged a rather annoying look of concern, "what exactly is there to fight back against? I mean, yeah, sure, I'd like to kick their asses, but..."

"They haven't really done anything horrible to us in a while," Lily finished. "Well, except for that stupid couch prank, but that was just Sirius. We all know he does solo missions just for the hell of it."

This caused Hannah to stop in her tracks. _Solo..._ Naturally, both Lily and James had assumed that it was Sirius alone who had pulled that prank on them. Of course, that wasn't true at all, but Hannah wasn't about to let that slip. Not only would it give Lily reason to distrust her, it would also mean revealing the fact that she and Sirius Black, of all people, had worked together - and that couldn't happen.

"That's not the point," Hannah told them, shaking her head. "A few weeks of good behaviour doesn't make up for six years of harassment. Have you guys forgotten the pact we made in first year? Because if we don't do something soon to show them that we're not backing down this easily, then none of that will matter anymore. They'll think they've won. This _is_ serious."

Regan and Lily exchanged another infuriating look, and then the latter spoke. "Are you sure _Sirius_ isn't the whole problem in all this?" she asked, though there was very little humour in her tone.

That was the final straw for Hannah. At the mention of Sirius through that _so_-not-funny pun, her blood began to boil, and a million emotions rushed through her at once. She turned on her friends with an angry scowl. "Of _course_ he's a big, fat, bloody problem, but what does that have to do with anything?" she exploded.

The others looked alarmed. Lily made a doubtful face and spoke cautiously, as if her next words might set off another reaction. "Well, it's just... We've noticed you act... _strangely_ every time the two of you have had a run-in. Like this morning, before the game, you were all cheerful - and then after your little brawl or whatever it was, you were upset again."

Regan nodded in agreement. "And Han, did you honestly think we wouldn't notice how much time you've spent worrying about your appearance lately? Or how much weight you've lost?"

Hannah flushed, embarrassed. A part of her had known that they would figure it out sooner or later, but she'd been in denial for a long time. Hell, she still was. To have them know that he was getting to her _this _badly... It would be unbearable.

"I'm not depressed, okay?" she argued. "So what if I've dropped a few pounds? Merlin knows I could stand to do it anyway..."

"No!" Lily practically shrieked. Both she and Regan looked really worried now. Hannah didn't want this; she didn't need their pity. She just wanted to be left alone.

"That's just Black messing with your head," Regan growled, looking positively murderous. "And I swear, the next time I see him, he's gonna get a piece of my bloody mind-"

"Stop it!" Hannah shouted. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Jamie making her way toward them, having changed back from her Animagus form. "I don't need you guys getting all concerned or whatever this is. I'm _fine_. I don't give a damn what Black says about me. I hate him and he hates me, and there's no way he could possibly be so-"

Hannah's words were cut short not by tears (as she had feared they might be), but by the strangest sensation. She felt her whole body contract, become smaller, and arms morph into something else altogether. Soon, she was on all fours, and white fur started to sprout from every inch of her body.

* * *

Lily's jaw dropped.

Regan, beside her, looked totally perplexed. "Okay, first," she said shakily, "_what the_ _hell_?" She gestured with her hand at the animal on the floor where Hannah had been standing only seconds ago. "What happened to the whole 'complete focus' thing? And second, I thought you were supposed to be a freaking _tiger!"_

A pair of wide, olive eyes stared up at them. Indeed, that was what Hannah had intended to become, but this certainly wasn't a tiger. In its place sat an angelic, apparently harmless house cat with snow white fur and the sweetest face Lily had ever seen.

"What just happened?" asked Jamie, who had come over to see what all the commotion was about. Her eyes shot open when she saw the cat there, and she simply said, "Wow."

"You can say that again," said Lily. "I guess that makes three of us in one day. Whoever said we wouldn't meet our dead-" She broke off abruptly when she caught sight of something that deeply disturbed her; the cat had shifted to the right, giving Lily had a good view of its side. And there, carved into its left haunch, a stark contrast against the pure white fur, were four parallel cuts - too neat to be accidental, too fresh to be written off as a thing of the past. Lily remembered the pale lines she'd seen that night at the lake, and suddenly, it all made sense. She heard a sharp intake of break from Jamie.

She nudged Regan, but she needn't have; the girl was already fuming, her arms tense at her sides. Clearly, she'd noticed - and it looked like was just as distressed as the other two, if not more.

Still, Lily didn't expect it when she stomped forward, grabbed the cat by the scruff of the neck, and headed off toward the corner with the armchairs. "_You_," she hissed at Hannah, while Jamie and Lily followed cautiously after her, "have some _serious_ explaining to do."

* * *

Not one of the Marauders was in a particularly good mood by the time Monday evening rolled around.

Sirius was still grieving over the damage to his face. As expected, the skin around his eye had turned every nasty shade of blue, black and purple in the book, and for the second time since starting at Hogwarts, he was forced to walk the halls bearing a bruise inflicted by a girl - a girl he neatly surpassed in both size and physical force, but, evidently, not in the element of surprise. Nobody had seen that punch coming, which was why, in James' opinion, it had been so bloody brilliant. He didn't mention this part to Padfoot, of course (if he did, he might find himself nursing a black eye of his own) but didn't hesitate when it came to teasing him about it. He suggested several times that he take his injury to the Hospital Wing, though he knew very well that Sirius would refuse to do so - "She'll think I'm a coward," was his classic excuse. "I won't sink that low. I have to grin and bear it." He had a point there - but in all, grinning was something he had done very little of in the last couple of days.

There was a full moon coming up, so naturally, Remus was in a bad state. His energy was waning, the colour fading out of his skin - but worst of all, things upset him easily. James wasn't sure what had gone down with Jamie in the common room yesterday (he'd mentioned it very briefly to the Marauders without elaborating at all) but that event in particular seemed to have pushed him over the edge. Now, he walked through the corridors with his head down, and in between classes, he took refuge in the library or the dormitories, claiming he needed to be alone.

As for James, he wasn't in a _bad_ mood, so to speak. He was just confused. Lily had made a hasty exit from their meeting yesterday and had been avoiding him ever since. She was doing a pretty lame job at hiding that fact, too. Whenever they crossed paths in the corridors, she met his eye for only a fraction of a second before averting her gaze and taking off at lightning speed. If the Marauders happened to sit near her and her friends in the Great Hall, she mumbled some dumb excuse that barely made sense and vacated her spot, often leaving her plate untouched. To be honest, James knew they'd taken a positive step in their relationship, so he wasn't taking it to heart. He just hoped they'd find some way of getting past the awkwardness sooner or later.

Peter was the same as ever. He'd insisted that they take him to the Hospital wing yesterday after he'd fallen out of the Quidditch stands, claiming that his wrist had been snapped in two. Madam Pomfrey, however, had concluded that it was only a sprain, and that he had landed at a very lucky angle, leaving him practically unharmed. Aside from that minor incident, Peter was just fine. James sometimes envied his ability to avoid the mess of romantic entanglements, but when he walked into the dorm after dinner and saw his pudgy friend sprawled across his bed, making miserable attempt after miserable attempt at James' trademark Snitch trick, he realised that Peter's lifestyle was not one he would voluntarily choose.

"Pete, man, don't do that," he said as the boy's fingers closed around nothing and the Snitch zoomed away from him. James stuck a hand out and caught it expertly, stowing it in his pocket. "You'll lose it, and I'm running out of places to nick them from."

Peter rolled over, looking dejected.

James wandered into the dormitory and slumped down onto his bed, wondering what the hell there was to do when all three of his friends were down in the dumps. Remus lay face-down on his mattress, so still that James feared for a moment he might not be breathing. (A sudden, deep sigh disproved this theory.) Sirius sat on his own four poster, grouchily sorting through his depleted stash of chocolate frogs.

"When's the next Hogsmeade visit?" he grumbled in the general direction of James, who shrugged.

"Dumbledore hasn't mentioned anything yet, but I expect not too long after Halloween."

Sirius perked up a bit at the mention of his favourite holiday. "Well, at least there'll be plenty of dessert at the feast."

James smiled apologetically as he broke the news to his friend. "Sorry, mate, but Dumbledore wants to replace the feast this year. He reckons it's 'unfashionable'."

Sirius looked crestfallen. "What the hell? What's so unfashionable about stuffing your face with pudding?"

James raised an eyebrow.

"Okay, whatever," Sirius relented. "But what could possibly replace the feast, anyway?"

"We're thinking a sort of haunted house thing. You know, section off the Quidditch pitch, fill it with enchanted objects, maybe get Peeves to help us out a bit."

Sirius groaned. "That's _lame_, Prongs."

"You think everything is lame."

"Yeah, but this is _really _lame. Can't we just do your stupid idea after the feast is over? Or are they expecting us to scream on empty stomachs?"

Strangely enough, Sirius actually had a point. Not about the screaming thing - that was pushing it - but about combining the feast and the extra event. "I'll put in a word for you and see what I can do," he told Sirius, who hooted with delight and exclaimed, "You're the best, Prongsie!"

"This haunted house thing, it's obviously going to be after dark, right?"

James turned, surprised to hear Remus speak from his side of the room. He was sitting up now, and in the shadows of the bed curtains, the circles under his eyes were darker than ever.

"Yeah," said James, furrowing his brow. "Why, is there a problem with that or something?"

He thought he saw a melancholy sort of smile on Remus' face, but it could have been the dark playing tricks on him. "Normally, it wouldn't be," he said ironically, "but since Halloween happens to be the night of the full moon... I'd say yes, that could cause a bit of trouble."

James froze. The entire student body of Hogwarts outside the castle after the dark on the night of Remus' transformation was definitely a cause for concern. For one thing, they would need to keep him far away from the pitch, so as not to put any students in danger. If anybody so much as _saw_ him, there would be serious repercussions. What was more, with such a task at hand, all three of the Marauders would need to be there to herd Remus away from the students - but since James was probably going to be required for supervision at the haunted house, that, too, would be a problem.

"Oh, shit," said James dryly. "This could get interesting."

* * *

**A/N:** Sorry for the wait (and also for the length), but there was just so much I had to cram into this chapter that it took me a lot of time (and a lot of words) to get through it all without butchering any parts of the story.

A couple of things I should probably mention:  
1) I know Hannah _did_ originally decide to make her Animagus a cat, but I'm in the process of changing that as I go back and edit the earlier chapters. So just pretend for now that she took the good ol' book's advice and decided to be a tiger after all.  
2) I also knowthat I never mentioned anything about Peter falling out of the stands in the last chapter, but this is a similar case - it's something I'm in the process of working into the last chapter, because I was originally going to put it in and then forgot, because I'm just stupid like that.  
3) You might have noticed that I eradicated my usual author's note at the beginning of the chapter, just because, well... I figured most of you probably don't feel like reading through a bunch of nonsensical rambling before you can even get started on the story. Plus, it makes the "Previously, in The Marauders and the Rogues" thing seem cooler.

Anyway, that's it for filler chapters. The next one is it - TBDO. Yes, it's going to be BIG. And DRAMATIC (perhaps excessively so). I'll get to writing it as soon as I can, but since I have to be careful with how I put this one together, it could take a while. In the meantime, reviews would be very much appreciated. Thanks for reading!

~PrincessEarth


	25. The Creature Behind the Curtain

**Plot:** The infamous Marauders weren't alone in their love for pranking. In fact, they often had their butts kicked by a bunch of girls. Now, seventh year is upon them, and the feud must soon come to an end. This is it. Four boys, four girls. Two opposing pranking teams. One hell of a battle to be won.

**Disclaimer: **Sad as it may be, I am not J.K. Rowling in disguise, and therefore I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters and themes involved. (I do, however, own Jamie, Hannah and Regan - so no poaching.)

**Quick note:** Before you start, here's one little thing to keep in mind: I meant it when I kept referring to this chapter as "The Big, Dramatic One". Especially about the "big" part. So there - you have been warned. I'll save the rest of my pathetic excuses/explanations for the author's note at the end of the chapter.

**Previously in the Marauders and the Rogues...  
**After the Quidditch game, Sirius picked a fight with Hannikins and ended up with a lovely black eye.  
Down in the Heads' common room, she and James discussed possible replacement events for the traditional Halloween feast, eventually settling on the promising idea of a haunted house (to take place in the Quidditch pitch).  
The meeting, however, was not all smooth sailing - Lily and James ended up in a shouting match mostly about their friends, and when Lily realised that he was, for once, right about everything, she gave him a nice, big hug. Aww... kward.  
Jamie had a confrontation with Remus in which she tried to apologise and explain herself, but he brushed her off with the usual "I can't deal with this right now" excuse. Jamie, being Jamie, took this to mean "I hate you" and got all depressed again.  
In the Room of Requirement, the Rogues continued to practise their transformations. Lily transformed, and then Jamie (with some encouragement). Hannah got all in a huff, complaining about how it wasn't fair that she was the only one who couldn't do it. She started yelling at the Rogues for not taking the whole thing seriously, and when this led to the topic of Sirius himself, Hannah started ranting on about her hatred for him... and suddenly transformed into a white cat (instead of a tiger, as she had intended).  
This white cat had four fresh cuts on her hip.  
Regan demanded an explanation.

And now...

* * *

**Chapter Twenty-Five: The Creature Behind the Curtain**

Hannah wouldn't speak for days.

Despite Regan's determination in the Room of Requirement, the Rogues had been unable to extract even a fragment of an explanation from their usually talkative friend; they'd forced her to change back, sat her down, hounded her until they were blue in the face - but Hannah wouldn't say a word. They'd been forced to vacate the Room that evening without even a confirmation of whether or not their suspicions were true.

Lily knew, of course, that they were.

She wished she'd been able to see it sooner. She'd noticed Hannah's strange behaviour, but this was beyond anything she could possibly have imagined. To think that Hannah was _hurting_ herself all thanks to Sirius' cruel remarks... It infuriated her, to put it simply. And that was only the beginning of what she felt toward that foul, acid-tongued Marauder.

After that night of revelation, Hannah seemed to develop a newfound interest in academia. She threw herself into her schoolwork with an intensity that was, in short, rather disturbing. It was like watching Regan get down on one knee and declare her love for Peter Pettigrew. (Well, no, nothing would be quite like that - but it was the same idea.) The classes in which she was seated next to one of her friends were normally a welcome reprieve from the monotony of sitting with a nerdy Ravenclaw, a pompous Slytherin, or (worse yet) a Marauder. Now, she gave the cold shoulder to anybody who happened to be in the seat beside hers, especially if it was one of the Rogues, and constantly hid behind the feeble pretence of being _really_ intrigued by the subject matter at hand.

The Rogues, however, never ceased their efforts. At every possible opportunity, they chased her down, demanding to hear the truth from her. On the odd occasion that they _did_ get her to talk at all, her response was nothing more than, "you guys are overreacting," or simply "leave me alone."

"This has got to stop," Regan growled one evening at dinner, when - for the third consecutive evening - Hannah didn't show up at all. The remaining Rogues sat together at one end of the Gryffindor table, not doing much in the way of talking or eating. Even Regan, who could usually be counted on to down a plate in a heartbeat, was only picking at her dinner.

Lily nodded in agreement, deep in consideration as she dragged her fork aimlessly through her shepherd's pie. "How are we supposed to help her if she won't even talk to us?" she wondered, her forehead creasing in thought.

Jamie, who had given up on her plate entirely, propped an elbow up on the table and faced the others. "I don't know about you guys, but this whole thing scares the crap out of me," she admitted. "I mean, she's always been so cheerful - how could we not have noticed it before?"

"We're stupid, that's why," said Regan, combing both hands through her hair in frustration. The others didn't respond to this, but it was obvious that they were unanimous on this point. Regan shook her head. "I don't get it. She _hates_ Black. Why would she take _anything_ he says about her seriously? Er, no pun intended."

Lily looked at Regan with a sad but knowing smile. "Regan," she said slowly, "think about it."

Regan's eyebrows pulled together, but then relaxed as she came to accept the truth that was practically dancing on the table in front of them. "Ah," she said simply, and shifted her eyes to her plate.

Both Lily and Jamie, however, turned their heads almost reflexively in the direction of the Marauders, who were seated at the opposite end of the table. They were acting much the same way as the Rogues were - picking at their food, not offering much in the way of conversation - and Lily had to wonder what had inflicted this sudden solemnity upon them all. The Rogues were still recovering from the brutal shock that had come with the realisation of the state Hannah was in, not to mention the unspoken question of whether or not she would ever be the same again. Nothing could be much worse than that. It seemed, however, that the Marauders were equally depressed. Sirius was still sporting a black eye, which, for obvious reasons, kept him in a constant state of irritability. Remus looked pale and sickly. Peter was moping. James was the only one who didn't look quite so down. This impression was mainly given by the fact that his knife and fork were actually moving across his plate, while the others' meals sat untouched in front of them.

Suddenly, James deposited his utensils on either side of his plate and looked up, meeting Lily's eye. Oh, crap. He'd caught her staring. He didn't seem bothered by this, though; all he did was offer a huge grin and a cheerful wave.

Lily resisted the urge to roll her eyes at this and sent back a shy smile before returning her attention to the mangled shepherd's pie in front of her. Suddenly, despite the rampant butterflies, the thought of putting food in her stomach wasn't quite so revolting. Somehow, a smile from James had the power to lift her mood dramatically.

"Ah, young love," said Regan in a dreamy voice. "If only dear Hannikins were as willing to accept it as you two are."

Lily didn't look at Regan. Instead, she shoved a forkful of potatoes into her mouth and shrugged. "I don't know what you're talking about," she said through a mouthful of food.

Regan snorted into her pumpkin juice.

"My, aren't you two ladylike," Jamie joked, rolling her eyes.

Later, as the three of them made their way out of the Great Hall, their collective mood plummeted considerably. Heading back to the dormitory, they knew they would run into Hannah, and she wouldn't be happy to see them. That wasn't to say she held anything of substance against them; she was just doing everything in her power to avoid talking to them, because that would mean giving a full explanation. Clearly, that wasn't something she was prepared to do.

"Okay, we need a plan," Lily said with resolution, as the staircase they were on jerked and began to rotate. The Rogues all stopped their ascent and grabbed the railings.

"Sure," said Regan half-heartedly, "but that's starting to sound a little old."

It was true - they'd cycled through many a ploy to get Hannah to open up to them, but not one of those had worked. They were starting to lose hope by now, but Lily thought this time, she might have just the thing.

"I know, but here's what I think: If Hannah's not going to explain it to us, then _we're_ going to have to explain it to _her_," she told the others.

Regan and Jamie exchanged a look of confusion, and the former put on an expression of mock-enthusiasm. "Yeah, great! 'Hey, Hannah, let us fill you in on what's happening in your life right now - you're cutting yourself, starving yourself and generally turning into an antisocial dungheap, all because of a certain Sirius Black. Capiche? No? You don't get it? Then allow me explain through the art of interpretive dance!'" She began to wave her arms about like a madwoman, and a first year on the landing above looked frightened. Lily snatched Regan's wrist to calm her down.

"No," Lily clarified, as the staircase slid into place and they began to climb once again. "I mean we need hard evidence to prove that we're right about what's going on. If we shove it in her face, then she'll have no choice but to argue back. Then we might just get a story out of her."

"Oh, goody - I love stories!" Regan exclaimed gleefully, while Jamie raised an eyebrow and inquired, "Hard evidence?"

Lily rolled her eyes at the one comment and turned her attention to Jamie, nodding. "Yeah. I've been thinking about Hannah's transformation," she explained, lowering her voice to a whisper as they passed a bunch of Ravenclaws heading in the opposite direction. "The way she just transformed out of the blue, it didn't seem natural. Everybody else had to be completely focused on what they were doing, but she went just like _that_." Lily snapped her fingers in Regan's face, mostly just to be annoying.

While Regan glared, Jamie nodded in understanding. "And everybody else turned into the animal they'd chosen in the first place," she added, looking thoughtful.

"Exactly. So I say we find out whatever we can about snap transformations and changes of form, and then we confront her with our findings. Even if we don't get any solid facts, we can always come up with our own interpretation. Try to prove that we know what's going on."

Regan clapped her hands together. "Alright, troops," she said very seriously, "it's time to get to the bottom of this."

* * *

After another day of solid avoidance, the Rogues finally managed to corner Hannah in the girls' dormitory.

They'd vacated the room for the morning in order to lull her into a false sense of security. Then, returning early from breakfast (which, predictably, Hannah did not attend) they caught her stepping out of the bathroom after her morning shower. They let her finish folding her pyjamas and cast a drying charm on her sopping hair before alerting her to their presence.

"Hannah, we need to talk to you," Lily said as they approached her. She was using the same line they'd used on many occasions before. The difference this time was (hopefully) that Hannah wouldn't be able to say no.

Hannah looked up and said in a flat, practised tone, "Sorry, I'm going to the library to work on my Potions essay. We can talk later, okay?"

Regan, who was coming at her from another angle, shook her head adamantly and folded her arms. "No, actually, that doesn't work for us. We're going to talk now."

Hannah's brown eyes darted nervously between her friends, who were rapidly closing in on her, leaving her with no route for escape. She gave a shaky, desperate laugh. "Guys, seriously. I need to work on this essay. You don't want me to fail, do you?" She rolled her eyes and forced a smile.

Regan shrugged. "Strange, isn't it, that you've suddenly developed this fear of failing?"

As Hannah's jaw set stubbornly and she searched for another out, Jamie snatched up the Animagus book from the foot of Hannah's bed and opened it, waving her wand and letting it flip through to the appropriate page.

"Right," she said, stepping back into the corner, where Hannah had practically been backed into the wall. "We've done a bit of research, and we reckon we know what's going on."

Hannah's stare turned cold. "Look, you might think you know what's going on, but you don't, okay? Why don't you just leave me alone?" She made to break out of the congregation, but Regan shoved her forearm against the wall, blocking her path.

"Again," she said stubbornly, "that doesn't work for us."

Lily brought their attention back to the book in Jamie's hands. "Anyway, like Jay said, we've got a fair idea of what's going on with you, Han. See, we read up on snap transformations."

Jamie nodded. "And sudden changes of form - like, say, tiger to cat."

"_And_," Regan threw in, obviously enjoying herself, "we found out a couple of things."

"Would you three _please_ cut the theatrics and get to the point?" Hannah demanded, looking thoroughly exasperated.

Jamie placed her index finger at a point near the bottom of the page and began to read aloud. "First off, it says here that '_Excessive stress - emotional or physical - can cause the primary transformation to happen quite abruptly, sometimes even unexpectedly. That is not to say that you will transform anytime and anywhere, but if the matter lingers on a wizard's mind (perhaps after spending a great amount of time attempting the transformation) it is possible that this inkling will push its way to the forefront of his thoughts, causing the transformation to occur. The stress from which this stems may be the result of pain, longing, harassment or even fear. Snap transformations are not common, but they occur often in young wizards - particularly those who are lovesick or confused._'"

Hannah shifted uncomfortably and stared at her feet. "So?" she mumbled. "That's a load of poppycock. And besides, it doesn't prove anything."

Lily raised an eyebrow and took the book from Jamie, turning over the page. "Oh, but we think it does," she said. "Especially if we look at this next bit. Just ignore the tone - you know how Flechbert is..." She cleared her throat. "'_My dear wizard, did you not achieve the transformation you sought? Was your Animagus form not quite the same as what you had in mind? Fear not, for I can explain it to you. Or perhaps, _you_ can explain it to yourself..._'" Lily coughed again. "Er, right. Let's just skip that part, shall we? '_If you suffered a change of animal form on your first transformation, you are a very rare case indeed. This is not, however, completely out of the ordinary. You probably had a fair bit of trouble achieving this transformation in the first place, am I correct?_'" Lily glanced up expectantly at Hannah, who just rolled her eyes and glowered. "'_If so, there are several possible causes for this. Among them are these: One, you selected an animal so unusual, so vastly different from your human form that a transformation was rendered near impossible, at least at your level of ability; Two, somebody is tampering with your mind (and, if this the case, do not panic, but you may want to look into this); And three - the most common justification of the lot - your mind is very, very preoccupied. Believe it or not, I _did _mean what I said on page twenty: a successful primary transformation requires your complete and undivided attention. Those who allow their thoughts to stray, even for a second, will have trouble becoming Animagi. And those whose thoughts constantly belong to something else - something that bothers them very much - will find it nearly impossible._'"

Hannah remained silent as Lily handed the book over to Regan.

"This is my favourite part," said Regan, grinning evilly and looking very much like one of those classic Muggle witches (the kind with pimply noses and crooked teeth) getting ready to tell the part of the story where the protagonists get eaten by the nasty old lady in the candy cottage. This thought gave Lily a sudden, rather brilliant idea - though she decided not to mention it until later.

"'_If they _do, _by some miracle, manage to transform, their stray thoughts may affect the shape they end up taking. For instance, if a particularly boneheaded wizard decided to become an Animagus, and thought, 'Well, I'd rather like to be an owl,' but for hours, days, even weeks could think of nothing but his empty stomach and the need to fill it with food, he could very easily find himself on the ground with four hooves and a nice, pink snout._'" She stopped to grin nastily at Hannah, who didn't seem to appreciate the joke. Regan rolled her eyes and moved on. "'_And_' - listen carefully, Han - '_if one happened to have a severe dislike for flies, and could not seem to stop thinking about this aversion, they might become a frog, the natural predator of the insect they despised - a subconscious but purely strategic move.'" _Regan breathed in deeply. "Blah blah blah, something about animal symbolism, and then here we have it: '_Changes of Animagus form can be triggered by many different factors, but in any case, there is _sure_ to be an explanation for it._'" She finished off the last line in a deep, mysterious tone, and with that, she snapped the book shut and stared Hannah down.

"My God, you guys have gone loopy," said Hannah, attempting a laugh but coming out with something more like a muffled hiccough.

"Oh, but I don't think we ha-"

"REGAN! Stop that!" Hannah burst out. Regan looked offended and stood back, pouting.

"The point is," said Lily, "after looking into all this, we think we've come to a conclusion." She pointed at the book. "Flechbert says snap transformations are caused by stress, and, obviously, you've been under a lot of that lately. As for the change of form thing and all that waffle about 'preoccupation of the mind,' well..."

"We think you've been thinking too much about Sirius," Jamie blurted out, but, upon noticing Hannah's murderous expression, cringed and added for her own safety, "please don't hurt us."

"I. Have. NOT!" Hannah said, stomping forward and startling the others into taking a few steps back. "If you _honestly_ believe I would let that disgusting, pompous bastard occupy even a tiny fragment of my mind, then you're all mad. _Completely_ mad. I'm serious."

Regan snickered, but Lily shoved her roughly aside, ignoring her cries of protest, and parked herself right in front of Hannah, determined to make her admit the truth. "Han," she said firmly, while trying to maintain a soft tone, "think about it. You have to admit, as much of a git as he might be, he had _something _to do with your transformation. No offense or anything, but you _did _take longer than the rest of us to transform in the first place, and remember, right before you turned, you said, 'He hates me, and I hate him.'" She placed her hands on Hannah's shoulders. "It's possible that you might have subconsciously changed your form to something that would naturally hate him, and that would naturally be hated by him in return."

Hannah shook her head stubbornly. "No, I turned into cat. I don't see how that has anything to do with hating Sirius."

"That's the thing," said Jamie timidly. "If you remember third year astronomy, we learned that the star _Sirius_ is part of a constellation called Canis Major - otherwise known as the Great Dog."

"Okay," said Hannah definitively, "you _have_ gone crazy. Why would any sane person take the time to work that out?"

Lily sighed. "Hannah, you have to understand, we're worried about you. We're not trying to torture you by bringing this up, but we figured, since you won't talk to us about it, we should try to come up with an explanation of our own. So we did. And if you want to argue it, then sure. But if you're going to do that, then at least tell us what the _real _explanation is."

There was a long silence in which Hannah did nothing but look angrily down at her toes. Lily could see that every muscle in her body was tensed; she didn't appear to want to talk just yet.

Lily decided to go on. "Look, I know it sounds crazy, but Animagus magic isn't something we're all that familiar with, and it probably works in very strange ways. And you have to admit, well... it does make some sense."

It took Lily a moment to notice that Hannah was crying now, fat teardrops falling onto her bare feet. She felt a pang of remorse for badgering her all morning and pulled her friend into a hug, which, fortunately, Hannah didn't pull away from (as Lily had expected she might). She sobbed into Lily's shoulder as Jamie closed the book and set it back down with a soft _thud_.

A few minutes later, the four of them were seated in their classic formation on Hannah's bed, the curtains closed around them and a silencing charm placed on the boundaries of their tent-like meeting place. Hannah had calmed down sufficiently, but as she sat at the head of her bed, her knees drawn up to her chin and her arms wrapped around them, she seemed to be struggling to keep the tears at bay.

"N-none of this leaves the room, okay?" she croaked, looking up at all of them with glassy eyes.

"Do you even have to tell us that?" Regan said, but there was little humour in her tone now. Lily was glad to note that she at last seemed to be taking things seriously. Hannah, however, gave a sad little laugh before taking a deep breath and - finally - beginning to fill them in.

"I'm not sure exactly when it started," she said, "but at the beginning of this year, I guess I just started seeing things differently. Black's always been nasty to me, sure, but this year..." She sniffed. "His insults seemed a lot more personal, you know? I don't know why, but they just started getting to me way more than they used to. And I tried to match it, to fight fire with fire, but the things I said never seemed to have the same effect on him. And then I started to think about it, and I realised it was because the things I say to him are so... unfounded. He can deflect my insults so easily because... well, he knows they're not true at all." She wiped desperately at her eyes with both hands. "Because, even though he's an arse, he's so... bloody... perfect. And I'm not." Apparently, this was too much for Hannah, because she broke down in sobs as soon as she'd uttered the last word and buried her face in her arms.

Jamie, who was sitting next to Hannah, put a comforting arm around her while sharing a look of startled concern with the other two. Lily couldn't believe her ears. She'd never heard Hannah speak that way about Sirius before, but after all these revelations lately, nothing seemed impossible anymore. She'd never have pegged Hannah as one to suffer from low self esteem, but now there was no doubt about it. She felt she had to tear Sirius down the same way he did her, and that was nearly impossible when you were dealing with somebody so insanely arrogant.

"Han," said Regan sternly, clearly losing her cool again, "don't you _dare_ say that. I know I'm not one to be all mushy, but _nobody's perfect_, okay? Hell, if anybody is even close, it's you. Black might think he's the handsomest thing alive, but if you turned him inside out - figuratively speaking, of course, even though by this point I'm actually considering doing that to him for real - he'd look like... the rear end of a hippogriff stuffed with flobberworms."

Hannah emitted a short, sad laugh. "But it's not just that," she said, sniffling. "He can take anything I throw at him, but I'm... I'm weak. I break down every time he says the slightest thing to get my goat. So I decided, if I couldn't take it from him, I had to make myself resistant to the pain. And that's when I started..." She trailed off.

"Cutting," said Lily quietly. "Anywhere else besides your hip?"

Hannah bit her lip and shook her head. "With all the wand work we do in class, anything else would have been too easily noticed."

"And we know you haven't been eating, like, at all," Jamie said tentatively, "but you haven't... you know... made yourself...?"

Hannah looked up at them with tears in her eyes. "Once," she admitted in a whisper.

Lily was practically frozen; she tried to shake this off and nodded in understanding. "But you had to know that wasn't going to help you, right? I mean, hurting yourself and refusing to eat are only going to make things worse."

Hannah's expression was dark, but difficult to read. "Actually, it worked for a while," she admitted, "but it made me think about it too much. I guess that's where the Animagus problem came from."

There was a stretch of silence until Lily thought of something and decided to speak up.

"I know you're not going to like what I'm about to say... but Sirius needs to know about this. He needs to know what he's doing to you. Otherwise, how is he ever going to learn his lesson?"

Hannah looked horrified. "WHAT? No! I- If there's one person in the entire universe who can't even get wind of this, it's him. And I swear, if any of you tell him-"

"I hate to be insensitive," Jamie interrupted, sounding apologetic, "but we have to get to Charms." It was hard to tell whether she was cutting in for the sake of sparing them an argument or because she was actually worried about being late for class. Knowing Jamie, it was probably some combination of the two.

"We'll get back to this later," Lily promised. "And don't go giving us the silent treatment again, okay Hannah?"

Hannah was still looking at them distrustfully, as if they she suspected they were about to go back on their words and run downstairs to tell Sirius everything they'd just heard. Still, she managed to smile sheepishly through the tears and nod.

"And guys, we have three days till our deadline," Regan reminded them, her tone half excited, half dangerous. "I say we work as hard as we bloody well can so that we're ready to pull something really nasty on those gits at a moment's notice."

Lily laughed. She could justify revenge on three of the Marauders, but the fourth... Well, after Sunday's meeting, she'd begun to realise that just because his friends were idiots, that didn't necessarily make him one, too. _What the hell_, she thought, and decided it was all in the spirit of the game. "Definitely," she agreed; Regan looked to the others. Jamie gave an affirmative nod, and Hannah smiled genuinely for the first time in days.

* * *

James hurried down the corridor, clutching a velvet sack in his right hand. He and Lily had scheduled another meeting for this afternoon in order to further develop their plans for the Halloween event. Much was in place already; they had Dumbledore's approval, Madam Hooch had agreed to let them use the Quidditch pitch ("As long as you clean up after yourselves," she'd said), and the students were already excitedly spreading word of what was to come. But they still had things to work out, and James was looking forward to discussing the details with Lily.

A few days ago, he'd been completely torn. After Remus had told him about the full moon on Halloween, he'd decided that the haunted house was completely out of the question. What if Remus' werewolf form were to be revealed? Worse still, what if somebody got hurt? The potential consequences were unthinkable. He'd approached Lily with every intention of telling her that they had to think of something else, and fast - but as soon as he'd brought it up (after they'd managed to break past the awkwardness that lingered from Sunday's meeting) she'd seemed so excited at the prospect of pulling together this whole haunted house thing that he just didn't have the heart to tear it all down in front of her. So instead, he'd gone to Dumbledore - one of the few others at school who knew about Remus' secret, and certainly the most authoritative of those who did - and presented him with his dilemma.

Dumbledore had thought for a moment, giving him that wise, blue-eyed stare that was both calming and unnerving at the same time. "I can see your quandary, Mr Potter," he had said serenely, "but no matter, we shall have to commence the event shortly before dusk, when your friend Mr Lupin is in no danger of transforming. There are certainly charms that can be put on your haunted house to make it _appear_ dark inside, are there not? I must say, you and Miss Evans have the most extraordinary ideas..."

They'd come up with such a failsafe plan that, by the time James had left his office, he'd been almost entirely at ease with the whole thing. When he'd told Remus about the security measures they were putting place, he'd been far more sceptical, but he was sympathetic toward James' situation with Lily. James just hoped nothing went wrong; he wouldn't be able to forgive himself if it did.

Now, however, there was another problem, and as James spotted Lily traipsing toward him from the other end of the hallway, he quickened his pace. She was wearing a flustered look to match his own, and he briefly wondered why.

"We need to do something about the feast," he said when they were metres apart, but faltered when his words seemed to echo. They both looked taken aback.

"Wow. That was scary." Lily said, raising her eyebrows. "Wait, why do you have a problem with cancelling the feast?"

James paused. "Er, Sirius. You?"

"Regan."

"Oh, right. Well then, we're going to have to do something, because I don't exactly want to be on _their_ hit lists."

"No, me neither," Lily agreed. She gestured at the bag James was carrying. "What's that?"

He held it up, having almost forgotten he had it. "Oh, it's just an idea I had. Should we go to the Heads' Room? I'll explain there."

"Oh, yeah. Sure."

This time, both of them were comfortable to sit on the couch, and despite being at opposite ends, James revelled in their proximity. Lily didn't even seem that tense as they talked through their ideas for the various sectors (rooms) of the haunted house.

"Okay, so we're going to have to have some kind of admittance hall or something," Lily said, her quill poised over a bit of parchment. She'd roughly sketched out the shape of the Quidditch pitch, marking the entrances and exits with green and red ink respectively. It wasn't a particular artful drawing, but James had to admire her for her organisational skills. Actually, he admired her for a lot more than that, but that was an entirely different story. "And we want the Boggart room to be somewhere near the back, right?"

"Yeah," said James. "And as for the entrance hall, maybe we could put a few food tables in there? Just to tide those eating machines over until afterward."

Lily nodded. "Good idea. I don't think Regan's ever had to wait until after nine to eat supper." They'd agreed to talk to Dumbledore about postponing the feast, so that the students could go inside and stuff their faces after exhausting the entertainment capacity of the haunted house. Lily had suggested vice versa, but James had immediately disagreed, knowing that this would mean extending the haunted house hours until well after dark. He'd managed to justify this by claiming that a bunch of jittery, jumpy students probably wouldn't mix well with full stomachs - and Madam Hooch _had_ asked them to "clean up after themselves"...

"And Sirius has never gone more than two days without sugar... until now," James said, nodding in agreement. "So let's see... we need a few tables of food, some drinks, and... Oh! I almost forgot, I wanted to show you..." Remembering the velvet bag, he snatched it up from the coffee table and loosened the drawstrings. He let a pile of golden chains spill out onto the table.

"Wow, Potter, you robbed a jewellery maker. I'm impressed."

James snorted. "Actually, I've been working on a couple of charms," he said simply. "Here - can I have that ink bottle?" He gestured at the empty bottle next to Lily's chart.

"Er... okay." Lily wore a guarded expression as she passed it cautiously over to him. He smirked at this and accepted the ink bottle, drawing his wand. Then he cast a quick charm on the chain so that it strung itself through the top of the bottle, creating a necklace-like ornament.

"Er, bravo, but I don't know a single soul who would wear that," Lily said, jabbing a disgusted finger at the hideous piece of "jewellery".

"Thought you might say that," said James with a chuckle, "but I'm not done yet. This is the tricky part." He cleared his throat and pointed his wand at the ink bottle, and then swished it and said, "_Lumos petrificus!_" The bottle did nothing, but that was fine by James. He simply handed the necklace to Lily and said, "Here. Test it out."

With tentative fingers, Lily grasped the chain. Although she slid it over her head and lifted her hair out of the way (as she did, he couldn't help but notice the beautiful, smooth pallour of her neck) she was still looking at him as if he were a raving lunatic. "Test it?" she repeated.

"Yeah," said James. He shook himself out of his stupor and grinned mischievously. "You have to scream."

"What the bloody hell, Potter," she said loudly and flatly. "I am not going to-"

But James had seen it coming, and in an instant, he'd levitated the clock off the mantelpiece and caused it to soar through the air, stopping mere inches from the tip of Lily's nose. As planned, she expelled a sharp cry and threw herself out of its path, landing sprawled across James. (Well, that last part wasn't planned, but James couldn't say he minded.) As all of this happened, he noticed, the ink bottle glowed bright red where it hung around Lily's neck.

"Honestly, Evans!" he exclaimed in mock-outrage. "That's the second time this year - show a little self-restraint!" He was laughing his head off as she hastily pushed herself off of him, her face almost as red as the ink bottle.

"This never happened," she declared, straightening out her sweater. She sat back down as far from him as the couch could accommodate. "And what in Merlin's name was that for, anyway?"

James smiled and pointed at her bottle necklace. "That is a scare-o-meter," he announced with satisfaction. "Well, technically it's still an ink bottle and a flimsy old chain... but the point is, it works. It glowed red when you screamed, right before you decided to express your undying love for me." He paused as if in thought. "Speaking of which, I wonder if that was some sort of side effect?"

Lily whacked him semi-playfully on the shoulder, blood rising to her cheeks once more. "I told you, that never happened." She rearranged her position on the couch, looking uncomfortable again. "And anyway, I don't get it. So it glows red when you scream? What's so great about that?"

"That's exactly what's so great about it. Wear it around your neck, and it measures how many times - and with how much intensity - you scream. Then there's a little trick you can pull to get that information out of it and have it written down on parchment, but I haven't figured out exactly how to do that yet."

Lily's resulting smile, as it finally clicked for her, was radiant, and James couldn't help but smile back. "_Finally_ I see where this is going," she said with a laugh. "And wow, James, that's... that's actually really brilliant." The compliment came reluctantly, but from Lily, he knew it was genuine.

There was a long (but not altogether uncomfortable) silence, which Lily broke by gasping.

"Speaking of brilliant ideas," she said, her eyes lighting up with inspiration, "I was thinking, you know how I said I could rope Regan into doing something for us?" James nodded, prompting her to go on. "Well, we actually _could _use her to our advantage. See, you might have noticed she has this talent for scaring little kids..."

A grin spread slowly but surely across James' face. Almost straightaway, he could see exactly where she was going with this. "Lily, you are a genius."

"I know, right?" she said happily. "So I was thinking..."

* * *

"Absolutely NOT."

As predicted, Regan was less than happy about the plans Lily had for her, but Lily had only just begun. She'd forced Regan into an armchair in the common room after the Heads meeting with a plan already formed in her mind; there was no way she could fail. Or so she hoped.

"_Please_, Regan?" she begged, putting on her sweetest, most convincing voice. "All our ideas so far are so _lame_, and this would just make our haunted house so awesome." This, in fact, wasn't true at all - she and James had come up with so many ideas for the rooms in the haunted house that, in the end, they'd had to do a bit of pruning, picking out the best of the best. But Lily wasn't about to tell Regan that - it would only work against her point.

Regan scoffed, shoving a liquorice wand in her mouth. Lily was beginning to worry that she was developing a serious addiction to the horribly black-pigmented sweet. "Of course your ideas are lame, this is you and Potter we're talking about. But I'm sorry - I won't do it. Not for a million galleons."

Lily bit her lip and spoke very slowly. "And, uh... what about a chocolate cake the size of a cauldron?"

Regan looked up at Lily with bright eyes. "You can do that?" she whispered, as if the act of cake-baking were some kind of forbidden art.

Lily nodded. "Uh huh. Oh, but..." She turned apologetic. "I'm sorry, Reegs. That reward is reserved for people who actually comply with the Head Girl's requests."

Folding her arms and slumping down in her chair, Regan said, "Forget it. I'm not doing it."

Lily stood up and started circling the chair, launching into a tantalising description of what Regan was missing out on if she didn't cave. "Oh, but think of all that delicious, chocolaty goodness... Soft, fluffy cake... Rich icing dripping over the edges..."

"Stop it, Lily! You're killing me!" Regan cried out, burying her face in her hands.

"Gumdrops on top..."

Regan cringed."Not gumdrops!"

"Oh, yes," said Lily dreamily. "Lots and lots of gumdrops."

Regan dug her fingernails into the arms of her chair, breathing in deeply and clearly trying to exercise some self restraint. It looked like a very difficult feat, but she finally managed to calm down, close her eyes and say, "Tempting, but I still won't do it."

Lily sighed and started fishing around in the pocket of her robes. "I hoped it wouldn't come to this," she said in a tone of disappointment. "But..." She made sure to stand right in front of Regan as she whipped two small boxes out of her pocket. "Maybe these will change your mind."

Regan gasped. "Crayons?" she practically shrieked. "Where did you find them?"

Aware that her plan was close to working, Lily shrugged offhandedly. "You thought Hannah destroyed them all after the incident in the Room of Requirement, right? Well, I just might have saved a couple for _extra special cases_..." She waved the crayons in Regan's face; the brunette reached out and tried to snatch them, but Lily anticipated that, too.

"Lils, you know me too well," said Regan tiredly, shaking her head. She inhaled deeply before finally relenting. "Alright. I'll do it. But _only_ because I like scaring firsties."

Lily beamed, stowing the crayons in her pocket for safekeeping. "Oh, sure. Nothing at all to do with the chocolate cake."

Waltzing off to the dormitory staircase, Lily passed James, who was sitting with the Marauders in the corner. She flashed him a thumbs up on the way by; he responded with a wink that let the butterflies loose in her stomach once again. Halloween, Lily decided, just might be her favourite time of year.

* * *

"Halloween sucks," said Regan as she stepped out of the bathroom Sunday afternoon.

Her emergence was met with several reactions at once: from Jamie, a quiet giggle expertly hidden behind a dainty hand; from Lily, a gasp and a delighted exclamation of, "It's perfect!"; from Hannah, a shamelessly unconcealed burst of raucous laughter, followed by "Somebody get a camera!"

Regan glared, but the resulting expression, masked behind her newly distorted features, was so ridiculous that even Jamie couldn't contain herself, and all three Rogues joined in the chorus of giggles.

"That chocolate cake had better be damn good," Regan grumbled.

Per Lily's request, Regan had been dressed in a long, dark, ragged robe that hugged her shoulders and waist but flared out unflatteringly at the cuffs and the skirt. Adorned with a thin silver rope around the middle and an ugly grey pattern of who-knew-what, the garment looked ancient and evil - just the look Lily was going for. She wore hideously oversized pointed black shoes, along with a tall witch's hat that looked a thousand years old. To top off the look, her face and hands had been coloured a revolting shade of green and enhanced with scattered lumps (with a particularly large one right on the tip of her nose - which, along with her eyebrows, had been magically enlarged), her teeth rendered yellow and crooked, and her hair turned into a tatted, ropey mess that hung limply on either side of her face.

"I can't believe Muggles think we look like... like _that_!" Hannah managed to exclaim between lapses of hysterics.

"I know! I can't say how glad I am it's not me in your shoes, Regan," said Jamie, looking gratefully down at her casual ensemble of a red sweater and a black skirt. "And I mean that literally," she added, "because those things are hideous."

When Regan clenched her fists and made to turn around and head back into the bathroom, Lily moved forward and tried to express some appreciation. She grabbed Regan's shoulders and forced her to turn around. "Look, I got you your feast, there'll be food on the way into the haunted house, and you struck one hell of a bargain with the crayons and the cake. So would you please stop moping? And besides, you don't actually look that bad. At least you're dressed for the occasion."

"Okay, what occasion are we talking about here?" Regan said sharply. "Because I don't think we're all on the same page. _You_, for one, seem to be dressed to impress a certain Head Boy..."

Lily blushed fiercely. It was true - whether consciously or not, she'd put a lot more effort into her appearance than usual. She knew she'd be seeing a lot of James, with all the setup and supervision they had to do, and for some strange reason, that made her self-conscious. She'd deliberated over her outfit for some time, eventually settling on a white V-neck shirt and a pair of pale jeans. She'd even done her hair up and added a touch of make-up, hoping it wouldn't be too obvious; apparently, she'd failed on that front. Even Regan, Queen of Not Caring, had picked up on it.

Lily chose not to respond to Regan's accusation and simply turned the comment around on her. "Well, Reegs, look at the bright side - after tonight, Pettigrew will probably be scared off for good."

"I should be insulted by that," said Regan thoughtfully, "but you know, you actually just made my day with that comment. Anyway, can we get this over with?"

Lily nodded and then snatched a small khaki shoulder bag off her nightstand. A thought suddenly occurred to her as she did. "Does everybody have their ankle thingies, you know, just in case something happens tonight?"

Hannah reached down and lifted up one leg of her navy jeans, revealing a small black strap circling her ankle. The others did the same, and Jamie explained that hers was hidden under her stockings.

Ever since their quasi-meeting on Thursday, the Rogues had spent every spare minute of their time (in other words, whenever they weren't in class, doing homework, cramming for quizzes, or preoccupied with Quidditch, Heads meetings or other such activities - and yes, their schedules were painfully tight) practising their transformations in the Room of Requirement. With a newfound sense of purpose fuelling their minds, they found it much easier to concentrate and execute the transition. Lily fixed her "creepy eye" problem for good, Regan started teaching herself some "wicked" new aerial acrobatics, Jamie became more confident, and Hannah warmed up to her cat form, which, initially, she'd been displeased with.

Things had been going well, but then a problem had come up. What, Jamie had wondered aloud, would happen if they used the Animagus tactic to stalk the Marauders, and then - although it was unlikely - accidentally changed back into their human forms? The whole no-clothes thing was sure to be a dilemma, she said - and this caused the Rogues to think long and hard about what they could do to avoid the risk of losing every scrap of dignity they possessed.

After a lot of experimentation, Lily and Jamie had read up on it in the Animagus book and had been presented with a moderately complex (but still doable) solution to this problem. They'd taken a plain black robe, shrunken it to a manageable size, and - with Flechbert's help - worked a few more complex charms on it so that it would grow and shrink with the wearer. Not only this, but it would mould to their shape when they changed out of their animal forms. It had taken a lot of explaining and several demonstrations before Hannah and Regan were convinced that it would work, but eventually, they had all become accustomed to wearing the shrunken robes around their ankles wherever they went, just in case they got themselves into an unexpected sticky situation.

Lily checked her own to be sure that it was secure. "Good. Let's go then," she said, and led the way out the door. They didn't expect to have to use them; not tonight. But in any case, it was a handy little precaution to have in their back pockets.

* * *

It was strange to see the Quidditch pitch looking so foreboding. The outside had been covered in cobwebs and bewitched so that the wood appeared to be rotting, the banners faded and tattered. It looked as though it hadn't been used in fifty years - which, considering such a thrilling game had taken place there only a week ago, was ludicrous. Far above the Rogues' heads, the Gryffindor lions on the hanging drapery didn't look half as vibrant as they had on that exciting morning, and the goalposts, whose tops were visible over the walls, were filled with intricate spider webs, each of which had its own huge, living occupant. Having done a large proportion of the setup, Lily couldn't help but smile as she admired her handiwork. Everything looked so creepy, and it wasn't even dark yet.

"Lily," Hannah whined as they got closer, "how could you do this to our poor old pitch?"

Lily laughed. "It's only an illusion. You do realise that, don't you?"

Shrugging, Hannah replied, "Illusion schmillusion. It looks dreadful."

"That's the point."

"And Reegs will fit right in," Jamie added, nudging Regan playfully with her elbow.

"Thanks, guys!" said Regan with mock enthusiasm. Her voice dropped about an octave as she went on. "Just watch - as soon as you enter my lair or whatever, you'll be running for your lives. I'm going to get you _all_ for this."

"Oooooh, I'm scared," said Hannah. "What are you going to do? Spread your warts?" She looked with disgust at the grotesque lumps that had taken the place of Regan's usual spray of freckles. "Or boils, or pimples, or whatever the hell those are."

Regan was about to fire back a nasty retort when three figures appeared not too far away. Lily had been expecting them, but apparently, the others had not. Hannah looked even more uncomfortable than usual as Sirius loped toward them with that easy grace of his, a haughty look evident on his features. James' eyes were bright with anticipation and he smiled in greeting (Lily noticed with some satisfaction that his eyes widened briefly as they lingered on her), while Peter plodded along a couple of metres behind them. Remus was nowhere to be seen; Lily noticed Jamie expel a small sigh at this, but couldn't tell whether it was out of disappointment or relief.

"Hello, ladies," said Sirius as the Marauders approached them, but suddenly stopped in his tracks. "Or should I say, three ladies and a... What the hell is _that_?"

As the Marauders took in the sight of Regan in all her uglified glory, James started to laugh, Sirius looked appalled, and Peter's jaw dropped like a five-tonne boulder. He looked as though the end of the world had just been announced, or the sky was falling, or some fate of equal calamity had befallen the universe. This was no surprise, Lily thought - to see the supposed love of your life looking so blatantly hideous... Well, it couldn't be pleasant. A sudden image of James covered in warts popped into Lily's mind. Nope, not pleasant at all.

"Shut up," barked Regan. "You want to talk about ugly? What about that eye, huh?" Sirius glared in response, though this only emphasised the state of his eye and, as a result, sent Hannah and Regan into a fit of laughter.

"Great job, Lily," said James, admiring the Muggle-style witch in front of him. "This is scary alright. But is this seriously what Muggles imagine witches to be? It seems a little... over the top."

Lily gave a dark laugh and nodded in Regan's direction. "Oh, believe me, it gets worse than this."

"Hate to break it up, lovebirds, but what exactly are all four of you doing here?" Sirius asked. "I don't see anybody else showing up this early."

Lily lifted an eyebrow. "What, James didn't tell you? We have to finish setting up."

James grinned evilly at his best friend. "And you're helping. Actually, the lot of you are. Er, except for Tain. I think it's best if she goes inside, you know, just in case anybody shows up early. She'll scare the shit out of them before they even get in there."

Regan looked appalled, but Lily threw in, "Yeah, go hide your face," and ushered her toward the entrance.

Inside, Lily was pleased to note, the haunted house was even creepier. Not only was there a charm in place to make the rooms appear to be bathed in semi-darkness (except for a select few in which the blackness was absolute), there were also noises reverberating through the makeshift walls from all directions. There were more than thirty different sectors to the haunted house, all arranged in a maze-like formation such that it would be nearly impossible for the students to navigate their way in or out of it. Each room had its own unique properties; one was filled with spiders and other crawling creatures, another was filled with voices whispering in the adventurer's ear and warm air being breathed onto their necks seemingly by nobody, and another, deep within the labyrinth, housed a Boggart in a cabinet. These were only the beginning. The doors were befuddling, and some rooms were even designed to spit you back out in a different place every time. Each room had taken a considerable amount time and effort to set up, but they'd had help, and besides, James and Lily worked well as a team (as they'd only recently discovered). And now, as a jumbled combination of noises filtered through the walls and made several of the others shudder (Peter included, obviously), they could see just how successful their work had been.

"Okay," said James, once Regan had been shown to her allocated spot inside, "we're officially open for business at five, and the protective shields go up at half past, so we have to make sure everybody gets in before that happens."

Lily nodded. The protective shields, James had told her, had been a suggestion of Dumbledore's. What with an evil wizard on the rise and all the rumours of attacks by his followers, the Headmaster had deemed it necessary to put up a barrier around the haunted house despite the fact that Hogwarts had its own (supposedly impenetrable) shields. Lily had found this a little odd, but she wasn't about to contradict Albus Dumbledore - especially where such a serious matter was concerned. "One can never be too careful," he had advised in that classic tone of his, "and with all these frightening things around, anything linked to dark magic would have an extraordinarily easy time blending in."

"So basically, we have an hour to get the food and drinks out here, unleash the Boggart, check on everything to make sure it's still working, make sure Peeves and the ghosts get their arses out here, finish charming the doors, and write up a roster for supervision." James recited the items off a list in his hand. "Oh, and, uh... let the creepy crawlies out of their cages."

"Creepy crawlies?" repeated Hannah with undisguised scepticism - and a hint of anxiety.

"Yep," said Lily, grinning. "Skrewts, flobberworms, fire crabs, some Cornish pixies, and a couple of Acromantula." Hannah's cheeks drained of colour as the list went on. Sirius didn't fail to notice this, and took this opportunity to volunteer her for the job.

"Well, since Milton seems so interested, why doesn't she do it?" he suggested maliciously.

James shrugged. "Okay, sure." Hannah looked outraged until he added, "you can both do it," at which point she exclaimed "Ha!" and smirked at a fuming Sirius. He began to protest, but James was already feeding them instructions and telling them where to go. "There's one room just through there - that's where the pixies are - and another next to the volcano room."

Hannah and Sirius looked panic-stricken. "Volcano?" they said at the same time.

"Yeah, it's nothing to worry about," Lily lied, grabbing Hannah's arm and pulling her toward the first door. "Now hurry up, we don't have all night. And make sure you close the doors behind you when you come out!"

It took some pushing and shoving and encouraging words, but finally, Hannah and Sirius disappeared through the door, scowling at each other all the while. Once it was closed behind them, Lily and James both started snickering.

"What?" Jamie, who was completely out of the loop, inquired. "What's so funny?"

Lily and James shared a look. "Oh, nothing," said the former. "It's just... They're going to have the time of their lives in there."

They left it at that and got straight to work on the remaining items on the list. Soon, the food had appeared on the tables, the roster was drawn up and had been hung on the wall next to the entrance, and Peter - who, until then, had been sitting around doing absolutely nothing - had been sent back to the castle to fetch Peeves and the ghosts. Everything was in place.

Well, _almost_ everything...

* * *

"That's _it_!" shouted Hannah, leaning back on the door to the pixie room after she'd slammed it behind them. They'd made a very narrow escape from the lightning fast, savage flying mischief-makers (after releasing them from their cages) and were very relieved to have made it out in one piece. Well, technically, they weren't quite in one piece; Sirius' shirt had been torn and Hannah sported a clean crescent-shaped bite on one of her hands after having tried to strangle one of the pixies, but the overall damage was minimal. "If I _ever_ see one of those things again, I am going to murder it!" Hannah declared furiously.

Sirius, with his back against the wall a few metres away, was panting. "I know. And to think Prongs and Evans are going to release those on a bunch of first years..." He shook his head. "I swear, they were trying to kill me!"

"_You?_" Hannah cried, incredulous. "You were swatting them all toward _me!_"

Sirius made a face. "No I wasn't! You were the one provoking them-"

"Oh, so I was provoking it when the bloody thing tried to snap my finger off?"

"Actually, yeah, you were. You had your hand around its neck, did you not?"

Hannah opened her mouth to reply, but closed it when she realised that he had a point. Instead of arguing back, she inspected the wound on her finger and put it to her mouth, trying to suck the blood away. It had dripped down her wrist and soaked into the side of her green shirt while she'd been desperately trying to shut the door behind them, and she groaned as she noticed the stain.

Sirius seemed to be caught between anger and concern. He glanced at her finger, cringed, and seemed to battle internally with whether or not to express his worry. Finally, he managed to stutter out, "Is... is it... bad?"

Hannah looked up in surprise. Since when did it matter to him? If not completely indifferent, then he should have been happy to see her suffer like this, even if it was only from a little pixie bite. Sirius never showed concern for anybody, least of all her. Hannah dragged her eyes away from him and refused to look back even as she spoke. "No, not really. But it's not like you give a damn anyway."

Sirius said nothing. The silence dragged on as they both leaned against the wall, Hannah sucking the blood off her wounded finger and Sirius looking torn again. Fortunately for the both of them, they happened to be in an empty room - presumably one that would be used by Peeves, or maybe one that simply hadn't been set up yet - so they didn't have to worry about being attacked by anything... except maybe each other.

"Where's that other room supposed to be?" asked Hannah finally, though she still wouldn't look at him.

"Something about a volcano, right? I'm guessing it's through there." Sirius pointed at a door to their left with chipped black paint. The occasional burst of luminous orange lit up the crack underneath. "Come on, let's get this over with."

Hannah shoved her way through the door first, and Sirius stepped through a couple of paces behind her. They barely had time to register what kind of room they were in before the ground started to shift beneath their feet; Hannah shrieked and stumbled, involuntarily latching onto Sirius' jacket in order to stop herself from falling. She would have been embarrassed about this had he not automatically put his hands on her shoulders, using her for support in return.

Apparently, James hadn't been joking about the volcano.

The two of them stood in a large rectangular room whose floors and walls were fashioned of dark, grey stone. The ground upon which they stood, however, had only remained intact for a moment or two; then, without warning, it had begun to rumble and crack in various places, opening up a network of deep pits that glowed orange and spat little flecks of the dangerous, hot substance into the air. The effect was not dissimilar to standing on a melting, dividing iceberg in the middle of the ocean - except that here, the temperature scale was reversed.

"Oh, shiiiiiiit," said Hannah shakily, her voice much higher than usual.

"The door!" said Sirius hurriedly. "We just have to get back thr- Oh, goddamn it!" He'd reached out for the knob, but the rock they were on jolted away from the door so quickly that both he and Hannah were thrown forward onto their stomachs on the cold, stone floor. Luckily, they had enough space that they weren't too close to the edge of any ravine yet, but they both scrambled to their knees and steadied themselves just in case.

The large chunk of rock they were kneeling on was moving across the room at a moderate pace, taking them past similar islands that were crumbling and cracking right before their eyes, sending little (and some not so little) bits of rock plummeting into the lava below.

"Are they flipping _mad_?" Sirius shouted over the sound of breaking rock and sizzling lava. "This isn't just frightening - this is _dangerous_, for Merlin's sake!"

Hannah tried to laugh, but the sound that came out was decidedly unamused. "Oh, come on," she argued, "they're not _that_ stupid. I'm sure this is designed so that there's no way you can possibly-" She was cut off midsentence when a noise was emitted from the rock that was currently supporting their weight. They both looked down immediately, only to find that a fissure was rapidly snaking its way through the middle of the rock, drawing a line right between them.

Hannah shifted right, and Sirius left. They were speechless as the line reached the end of the rock, but both cried out when their sides of the island lurched apart, carrying them slowly but surely in opposite directions.

The side Sirius was on stayed steady, at least, but Hannah swore under her breath when she realised that her portion of rock was not only moving sideways, but also down, down toward the merciless pool of lava below.

"Black!" she cried out. "Give me your hand now, or so help me God, I will-"

But she needn't have said anything, because Sirius had seen it too, and he was right there in a heartbeat, reaching an arm over the edge. His face looked as she'd never seen it before - pale, wide-eyed, with fear written all over it - as she grappled with his fingers, trying desperately to get a good grip before the rock sunk too low.

And then, without warning, the rock fell out from under Hannah's feat, tumbling into oblivion.

"Sirius!" Hannah screamed in terror, as she swung precariously from the edge of the other rock, held up only by his two hands closed around hers with such force that both their knuckles were turning white. He tightened his grip, but - much to both of their horror - they could see that blood was being squeezed out of the wound on Hannah's finger and was dripping freely down their hands, acting as an annoying sort of lubricant.

"Hannah! It's okay, I've got you, I've-" But as he readjusted his grip once again, their hands slipped; Hannah's slid out from his grasp and she fell, screaming, to the bottom of the pit.

"NO!" Sirius bellowed. "HANNAH! NO!" As she disappeared into the fire, Sirius looked desperately around, as if trying to find confirmation that this was a dream, or a very terrible idea of a joke. There was nothing around to inform him of anything - except that he was alone in this horrible room, haunted by Hannah's last scream as she had fallen - fallen from his grasp into the depths of a volcano, all thanks to his stupid carelessness...

As his eyes searched the room, they landed upon something peculiar on a nearby wall. A broom hung there from a claw-like metal hook. In fact, there were plenty of them lined up along the walls, but they camouflaged so easily with the dark, natural shade of the stone that he hadn't noticeds them until now.

Without thinking twice, Sirius lunged at the nearest one, and, in one swift motion, managed to unhook it from the wall and throw himself astride it. He swooped toward the exit.

* * *

One minute, Hannah was about to meet her doom at the bottom of a volcano in a haunted house that, as she had come to realise, was pretty damn demented.

The next thing she knew, her surroundings had disappeared. The rocks and lava were gone, and instead, she had landed miraculously on her feet in a comfortingly empty room decorated with nothing but a few cobwebs, a creepy-looking silver chest in one corner, and a row of luminous letters on the wall that proclaimed, "Don't worry, you're not dead!"

Hannah laughed out loud (mostly in relief) at the sight of it - because, well, even though she trusted Lily with her life, she couldn't say it hadn't crossed her mind for the briefest of moments.

She moved tentatively toward the door on her right, and had a look inside first before stepping in. It wasn't the volcano room, as she had half-expected, but a dim chamber full of cages of all shapes and sizes. Hannah grimaced as she realised she had stepped right into the task that she had wanted to badly to avoid. Even after falling into a pit of lava, she was stuck with it.

_What the hell_, she told herself, and got to work on letting the creatures loose. She did the job as quickly as possible and then ran - without looking back - to the first door she saw. This time, she fully expected to be back in the volcano - but again, she was not.

"This place doesn't make any sense," she mumbled to nobody in particular, and began to work her way through the rest of the maze.

* * *

Sirius, at long last, came blundering through the door to the entrance hall, his hair completely dishevelled, his face coated in sweat, and his clothes torn in several places.

"What the _bloody hell_, Prongs," he said dangerously, as he stormed toward his bespectacled friend. James, surprised, turned around just in time to be caught by the collar, yanked out of his seat, and brought nose to nose with a murderous-looking Sirius Black.

James looked vaguely apologetic, but also a little bit amused. He coughed. "She's right over there, mate, if that's what you're talking about." He pointed toward the group gathered around one of the food tables.

Sirius whipped around, his eyes still narrowed in fury as they landed upon Hannah. There she was, alive and intact. Actually, better than intact - she was condescendingly laughing her head off at the spectacle, as if he were some kind of idiot.

"Did you think I was dead, Black?" she joked in a patronising manner.

Sirius was fuming. His shoulders rose visibly up and down as he stared at her, the look in his eyes gradually shifting from incredulity to anger - and then to hurt. Before much of that last emotion could show, he turned on his heel and swept determinedly out the door.

* * *

"Hannah, that was horrible," Lily whispered to her friend when Sirius was gone. She was half-smiling, as the whole thing had been a sort of set-up on James and her part, but after seeing Sirius' face, she felt terrible for what had happened.

Hannah looked at Lily, defensive. "What, like this isn't all _your_ fault? That room was crazy. Why the hell would you put something like that in here?"

"I know... I'm sorry," said Lily softly. "But, like almost everything else in here, it's just a bunch of charms. There's no real danger in this whole place."

"And to be fair," James interjected, "most people notice the broomsticks within the first couple of seconds."

"Broomsticks?" Hannah was livid. "There were _broomsticks?_"

"Well, yeah," said Lily. "A whole bunch of them - on the walls."

"And who did you have testing this out - Madam Hooch? Dumbledore?"

James exchanged an amused glance with Lily. "Actually, Slughorn and a couple of third years."

The look on Hannah's face was priceless. "Well... well... Oh, whatever." She swung her legs around and hopped off the table she'd been sitting on, adopting a casual stance in what was obviously an attempt to make everybody forget that anything of note had happened. "So are we done here, or is there still stuff to do?"

"Did you end up getting to all the cages?" Jamie - who had been quiet until now - asked doubtfully. "I mean, after you two got separated."

Hannah was practically fearless, but bugs - spiders in particular - were her one qualm. So it surprised everybody when she replied with a simple, "Yep. Now, what's next?"

The rest of the hour passed quickly, and soon, students were showing up at the front door. Most of them, to Lily's immense pleasure, looked excited to be there, as if they really had been tired of the "unfashionable" Halloween feast. Some of the older kids (particularly the Slytherins) were sporting unmistakable _this-is-lame_ looks on their faces, and she silently wished that they would find their way to the volcano room.

Lily and James handed out scare-o-meters with the help of Jamie and Peter (prior to the event, they'd fashioned a whole bunch of them from whatever discarded trinkets they could find lying around the school), while Hannah had disappeared inside, claiming she was going to "check on Regan".

"Wear them around your necks!" James was calling out to the confused students as they passed through the entrance, collecting the unconventional jewellery from their Head Boy and Girl. "Bring 'em back to us after you've gone through once - the person with the fewest screams wins a prize! You can try as many times as you like, just make sure to come back here to get your scare-o-meter reset after each round."

The students perked up considerably at this - even the Slytherins, most likely because they hastened at any opportunity to prove that they were the best. _Bring on the lava_, Lily thought again.

Just before five-thirty, Sirius showed up looking defeated; he'd tried to stay out, apparently, but had been forced back inside by the patrolling teachers. Dumbledore had made it compulsory to attend the haunted house, so that meant that all the students had to be inside the barriers before the allocated time. Which reminded Lily...

"James, where's Remus? I thought everybody had to be here."

James looked like he'd been caught off guard with that question. He blinked and then said, "Uh, he's been sick lately. Like, _really_ sick. McGonagall agreed to let him off as long as he promised to stay inside. Apparently, he's trustworthy enough for that." He cast a doubtful look at Sirius, who looked very much like he'd attempted to attain similar exemption from the event.

Lily nodded. Remus _had_ looked ill for the past week or so, and Jamie had noted that he was in a particularly bad mood. Beside Lily, her best friend fidgeted uncomfortably at the mention of the missing Marauder.

"So what are we going to do this whole time?" Peter piped up. "I'm bored."

"I was wondering that myself," replied James. He turned to Lily. "Since we'll be done here in about five minutes, we don't really have much to do. The Ravenclaw Prefects are on duty for supervision and I think McGonagall's going to guard the entrance." His eyes took on a mischievous glint. "So I guess we're free to roam around the haunted house."

Peter blanched. "I don't know, Prongs, it looks scary in there..."

"Pete, you've only looked in the door," Sirius scoffed from his position next to the food table.

At that moment, Hannah emerged from the very door they he spoke of. Her cheeks were flushed red with excitement, her blonde curls thrown in every direction.

"Guys, you've got to get in there," she announced breathlessly, coming to join the others. She seemed to have had a change of heart since venturing in on her own. "It's awesome. Even Regan's having a great time. Mind you, she sent a bunch of firsties off crying their eyes out, but you had to have been expecting that when you hired her." As she noted Sirius' presence, she grimaced and added as a side note, "Oh, _he's_ back."

Lily rolled her eyes and ignored this remark. "Well, since we did all the setup, I guess we're not in the running for the scare-o-meter contest. But... Why don't we have a contest of our own? We're down one and so are you - the numbers are perfect."

"I like your thinking, Evans," said James. "Alright. Grab a necklace, everybody. We're going in."

* * *

It was safe to say that the Marauders were losing by a landslide.

One would think that a bunch of emotionally vulnerable young girls would be no match for three tough teenage boys in a contest of try-not-to-get-spooked, but in this case, stereotypes had to be reconsidered. The reason?

Peter.

He screamed at _everything_. While he was wailing his lungs out, the others spent most of their journey through the numerous chambers laughing at how his voice seemed to rise in pitch every time. In the beginning, it might have passed as a vaguely masculine sound - but after they'd passed through half the haunted house, he'd gone up several octaves, and quite frankly he sounded more like a girl than any of the Rogues did.

Granted, they were all so caught up in the excitement that each of them expelled a scream every now and then, but Peter clearly took the cake. After they'd escaped the pixies (who'd resumed their savage vendetta against Hannah and stuffed her into one of their tall, dome-shaped cages in the corner, forcing the others to spend a whole fifteen minutes trying to get her out) they made their way to the door of the volcano room. Four of them were prepared; two were not. One of those two was doomed from the start.

James, who happened to be at the front of the group at this point in time, was smiling lopsidedly as he reached out and grabbed the knob. The door swung open, revealing the monstrous cavern of rocks and blazing pits of doom. There were already a few students inside, but they were far from the entrance, calling out to one another and occasionally screaming as they jumped from rock to rock, navigating their way to the other door. James recognised one of them as Paul Abbott, a seventh year Hufflepuff and a friend of the Marauders.

Peter let out a squeal before they'd even gone inside. Noting this, Hannah - who was right behind James, and looked eager to prove herself this time round - smirked and said, "Hey, Peter, why don't you go in first?"

Peter gulped. "Er, I'm g-good."

Lily appeared to read Hannah's mind like an open textbook. "Nonsense," she urged, and the two of them pushed Peter through the open door. He clearly wasn't ready for this; he yelped as he was flung forward, but his legs seemed unable to stop moving. The momentum carried him several metres into the room and he tripped, legs flailing as he soared face first over the edge of a massive ravine. His earsplitting cry - the pitch of which was, by this point, worthy of an opera singer - echoed throughout the room long after he'd disappeared from sight.

"Hey!" protested Sirius. "That wasn't fair!" He sounded more defensive of the Marauders' collective screaming score than of his friend's actual safety.

Hannah looked annoyingly smug, while Lily simply raised and dropped her shoulders, brushing it off. "Nobody said anything about rules, Black," was her excuse.

At this, James exchanged a look with his best friend. Apparently, Hannah and Lily weren't the only two who were on the same wavelength tonight; before the redhead could even pick up on their suspicious expressions, they'd lifted her clean off the ground - Sirius at her feet and James at her arms - and started to carry her into the volcano room.

"Hey! Put me down!" she complained, squirming to no avail. The two Marauders had her firmly in their grasp, and they weren't about to let go anytime soon. That was, until...

"I believe this is the part where we'd normally throw you onto a couch or something," James explained calmly, as he and Sirius began to swing her rhythmically back and forth. Lily glared daggers at Sirius, who maintained his grip on her ankles and smirked.

"Oh, but, er, since there's no couch here..."

"We'll just have to settle for this pit of boiling lava."

"So long, Evans!"

They released their grip at exactly the same time, sending her flying down into the volcano. James felt a little remorseful afterward, but he knew it was all in good fun. He just hoped Lily realised that, too.

Sirius turned back to the remaining two Rogues, grinning vehemently. "So who's next?" he asked.

The girls exchanged a look that seemed to suggest they knew something that the Marauders didn't. "Uh, you are," said Jamie simply, and nodded at the rocks beneath their feet. James looked down. Sure enough, the uneven surface was beginning to crumble, and before either of them could respond at all, they were falling. Both cried out in surprise; around their necks, their scare-o-meters emitted pools of red light. Just before he reached the nonexistent bottom, James heard two synchronised shouts of "cannon ball!" from up above.

Jamie and Hannah were the last to land in the don't-worry-you're-not-dead room, holding hands and grinning. "That was awesome!" said the latter, releasing her grip and stepping toward the mob.

"Speak for yourself," said Lily, who was busy dusting herself off. Her once-white top had now been smeared with dirt. "At least you landed on your feet."

"Er, yeah, sorry about that," James said sincerely at the same time as Peter burst out, "At least you didn't fall on your face!" Everyone ignored him; it wasn't the first time in the past week that such a thing had occurred.

The competition resumed soon after. They passed through another couple of rooms, nobody screaming much except for Peter. Lily and James knew it all too well to truly be caught by surprise, and yet, of the rest of the group, they probably ended up screaming the most. Hannah and Sirius seemed to be in fierce competition with one another, both determined to be less affected by the creatures and charms than they had been on their first trip through. And as for Jamie... her mind was somewhere else, it appeared.

Finally, after shuddering their way through the room of chilling whispers and invisible things breathing down their necks, the motley crew stumbled upon a familiar face.

"REGAN!" Hannah called out. The green-faced monster looked up at the sound of her name, and under those horrible, furry brows, they saw her eyes narrow. Regan sat on one side of the room upon what appeared to be a throne of sorts. She was surrounded by various altars and ornaments, all of which were either dirty or broken or both. On a ramshackle shelf to her right was a plethora of vials of all different shapes and sizes, each filled with a coloured liquid or powder and labelled with some ridiculous description like "Pickled prune juice - beware the bitter aftertaste" or "Essence of dirty sock - sure to make even the most fearsome enemies cringe away from you". In front of Regan's throne were three students - a pair of second year girls and a tall, handsome boy their own age.

"Wait, this is _Tain?_" said the boy, scoffing. James recognised him as Blaine Harlow of Slytherin. "Forget it. I'm out of here."

Regan's face twisted in annoyance as he left the room with the two snickering twelve-year-olds hurrying along after him. "Thanks a lot, Han," she spat. She looked dangerously irritable, but it was hard to take any expression seriously when she was sporting a face like that. "I was in the middle of telling him I was on the run from a bunch of deranged gypsies and had been forced into this stupid disguise by a bunch of idiot schoolkids-"

"Hey!" Lily cut in, offended.

"I'm sorry!" said Regan. "But this is _boring_. I had to do something fun. And he actually believed me for a minute."

"And your flirtation tactics are _really_ disturbing, Miss 'I Stopped Liking Him After Fourth Year'," Hannah contributed with a roll of her eyes. The Marauders tittered at this, causing Regan to convey a silent death threat to her blonde friend.

"Well, it looks like we aren't going to get any screams from this room," said Sirius impatiently, "so are we going to get a move on or not?"

Regan's jaw dropped in indignation. "Hey! I could make you all cry like five-year-olds if I felt like it. And... Wait, you guys aren't having a contest without me, are you?" When the others looked sheepish, she leaned back in her chair and said, "Man, this sucks. I _knew _I shouldn't have taken this job."

"You won't be saying that once you get your cake," Lily reminded her, but was ignored, as Regan's expression had turned from disgruntled to animated in an instant. Clearly, she had an idea. Almost everybody took a cautionary step backward.

"Hey, Pettigrew," Regan called out. "C'mere."

Peter, just as frightened as ever, looked desperately around him, only to find that everybody else had moved backward and he was the only one standing within the pool of light that surrounded Regan's throne and the space in front of it. He froze, visibly struggling with the decision of whether or not to obey; after all, this was the first time Regan had actually _asked_ him to come closer, as opposed to the usual order of "Go far, far away and never come back." But she wasn't herself right now, so to speak, and even from where he stood with the rest of the group, James had to admit that the lumps on her face were pretty off-putting. Eventually, Peter gulped and took a few shaky steps forward.

"Good." Regan spoke slowly, as if to a small child, but the smile on her face was downright evil. Somehow, Peter was oblivious enough not to take notice of this. "Now, how about a kiss?"

Peter was caught by surprise. "A... a kiss?"

"Yes, you moron. A kiss."

Another internal struggle. He shuffled his feet; James had a feeling he was wondering if this might be the first and only time she ever actually consented to him planting one on her. Last time, it had been a dare. This time, she was hideous and green and covered in warts. Neither was an ideal situation, but they were all he had, and Peter was desperate.

Hesitantly, Peter leaned forward. The others could only watch from behind, but James had a bad feeling about all this.

"Hold on," he whispered to the Rogues, "this is just another chance to up our scream count, isn't it?"

The girls shrugged indifferently, but their expressions told a different story. "Well, we aren't in on it," Lily explained, "but yes, I expect so. Or just a way for Regan to entertain herself."

They turned back to the spectacle. Peter was moving slowly, closer and closer until, seemingly at the very last moment before their lips touched, he drew back in fright as if he'd suddenly changed his mind. He screamed, higher than ever, and fled from the room. The heard another shriek behind the closed door as he encountered whatever it was that awaited him next-door. Regan laughed like a maniac at his expense.

"What did you do?" Sirius demanded, looking both awed and disgusted at the same time.

Regan stopped cackling, grinned, and gave an innocent shrug. "Nothing. I guess it was all just too much for him. Oh, and, er... that bad breath potion Slughorn brewed for me might have been a bit of a problem."

There was a general chorus of eye-rolling at this - and a high five from Hannah - before the group bid adieu to Regan and continued on their way.

The next room, as it turned out, was Peeves' hideout. When the rest of them caught up to Peter, he was cowering in a corner and being pelted with what appeared to be large turnips.

"Peeves," Lily scolded, "we told you, no physically hurting the students. We'll get in trouble."

James couldn't help but laugh at the scene before him. "Oh, it's alright," he told Lily, "it's nothing the students aren't used to anyway. And Peter wouldn't be such an easy target if he didn't act like such a sissy all the time."

They were nearing the back of the haunted house. As they moved through the next few rooms, James anticipated the one that they were bound to walk into fairly soon, and wondered how the others would react.

After passing through a room of total and utter darkness (which was, in fact, filled with nothing _but_ darkness, despite Peter's occasional yelps and his cries of, "Something grabbed me!") they finally navigated their way into a pool of light. There was nothing in this room but a large wooden cabinet and - oh, but it couldn't be - a piece of parchment in flames on the floor.

It was the Marauders' Map.

James knew immediately what was going on, but Sirius - who was at the front of the mob - evidently did not. He rushed forward, exclaiming, "WHAT THE HELL? Who left this here? Prongs, help me put it out!"

James panicked, not because he feared for even a moment that this might be real, but because he was worried about the map's exposure - the Rogues were standing right there, and they could easily see the parchment. He just hoped they couldn't make out any of the writing. The whole thing was pretty blackened by now, but...

Just to be safe, James took hold of Peter and shoved him into Sirius, who stumbled out of the way. The parchment and the flames quickly rearranged themselves into an indecipherable blur. Usually, that blur would have evened out into a definite shape of some sort, but in this case, the colours continued to swirl, circling nonstop around Peter. Amidst the spinning hues, James spotted several different images - a cloaked figure, a dragon, a jet of green light, and Regan's distorted face among others - but everything went by so quickly that he barely had a chance to identify any one thing before it was gone.

Peter, meanwhile, was looking absolutely petrified, cringing at every image that flashed by and eventually lowering himself to the ground, where he practically curled up into a ball.

"Wormtail, it's just a Boggart!" James called out. "What are you afraid of?"

Peter whimpered. "EVERYTHING!"

James rolled his eyes. "Somebody get in front of him," he said, when it was obvious that Peter didn't have the sense to get up and cast Ridikkulus on the stupid thing.

Jamie was the nearest, so she reluctantly stepped forward and allowed the Boggart to change shape before her. They all watched as the colours swirled again, and when they finally arranged themselves into a solid form, it was something none of them were prepared for.

On the ground was a human body - a very pale human body with hollow eyes and blood streaked down its face and torso. A human body with vibrant red hair. A dead one.

Jamie put a hand to her mouth and her eyes swam with tears, but James barely had time to notice this; the pain in his chest was so overwhelming that he had to take a step back from the gruesome display, trying to gather his thoughts. Even though it was a Boggart, it looked so unbearably _real_. The features were exactly the same, only... emptier. Not there anymore. His throat tightened and he felt the corners of his eyes prickling with moisture, and then-

Hannah gave Jamie a gentle shove out of the way and moved in front of her, and the body was gone.

James tried to pull himself together. Why had he reacted so badly? It was only a Boggart. They'd been taught to face these things years ago, to be able to identify that they were in no way a picture of reality - just a representation of their innermost fears. Unfortunately, Jamie's greatest fear happened to be the same as what James suspected his would be.

He kept his eyes fixed on the floor where the body had been, his breathing trembling and shallow. Had he looked up, he would have noticed that all eyes in the room (save for one set) were upon him. This included Lily's green ones, which fixed him with an indescribable look of sadness, surprise, sympathy... and something like gratitude.

But James did not look up, because he was too afraid to look into those eyes right now. Afraid that he might one day see them as hollow as the ones he'd seen on that lifeless Boggart.

All the while, nobody noticed Hannah standing in front of her own Boggart: a full length mirror reflecting a distorted image, with a misshapen body and a ravaged, deformed face; a reflection that looked horrible and weak. She stood very sombrely in front of it for a moment, and then she cast Ridikkulus, and her reflection turned into the portrait of the Fat Lady, her face pink as she screamed at mischievous students from inside the frame.

* * *

The six of them made their way out of the room in silence. Everyone seemed afraid to speak after what had happened with the Boggart, with the disturbing image and James' unexpectedly intense reaction. Most of them kept their eyes on the ground as they passed through the exit, and because of this, none of the Rogues noticed when the Marauders signalled to one another and slipped under the tapestries, proceeding to pass underneath the stands and escape into the castle grounds.

It wasn't until they'd rounded back to the entrance hall that the Rogues realised they were alone. Lily, finally chancing a look at James, turned around, only to find the space behind them mysteriously empty.

"Guys, stop," she told the others. They halted in their tracks and turned to face her, noticing as they did that the Marauders were nowhere to be seen.

Jamie looked confused. "That's weird," she said, but Hannah had a different idea.

"Those idiots. They're probably going to jump out at us anytime now. Man, they're _such_ sore losers..."

Lily had to admit, it wasn't a bad assessment of the situation. Considering the gravity of what had just happened, however, she didn't think it was terribly likely that they would pull something so immature at this point in the game.

"Maybe they went ahead of us and we didn't realise," she offered. The three of them considered this and began to look around the entrance hall. There were so many people gathered around the food tables that it was impossible to see if the Marauders were among them, but as they looked around, their attention was caught by none other than Paul Abbott. He was on supervision duty with his fellow prefect, Magnolia Fairwater, and had a knowing smile on his face as he called out to them.

"Oi!" he gestured for them to come closer. When they had done so, he asked in a conspiratorial tone, "You aren't, er, looking for _those four_, by any chance, are you?"

The Rogues shared a suspicious glance. "Kind of," Lily admitted. "Why? Have you seen them?"

Paul shrugged. "I may have," he said vaguely. The annoying (and rather Marauder-esque) smile was still firmly in place.

It was strange; Abbott was a friend of the Marauders', and if he ever got involved in the feud, he was bound to take their side. And yet here he was, possibly offering up information to the Rogues concerning their whereabouts.

"What's the catch?" Hannah said bluntly, crossing her arms. She was always one to cut straight to the chase, and she read the motives of others with ease.

"You certainly don't waste any time, do you?" Paul countered, apparently reading hers as well. "But sure, I'll cut the crap. You guys know Rose Williams, don't you?"

"Yeah," said Jamie slowly. None of them were quite sure what he was getting at here. "She shares our dorm. Why?"

Paul's smile broadened. "Well, see, I've been trying to get her to go out with me, but she thinks I'm a jerk."

"No kidding," said Hannah. (Lily thought this was a bit harsh, but to be perfectly honest, Paul Abbott _was _a bit of a jerk. In fact, this thing with Rosalie reminded her of James' pursuits from first year to sixth. Except that James had managed to mature since then. Perhaps Paul was finding that part a bit of a struggle.) "So what do you want from us, then?"

"Put in a good word for me," he said. "That's all. Just... tell her how awesome I am."

Hannah scoffed. "And what grounds do we have to base that argument on?"

Paul raised an eyebrow. "Do you want me to tell you where they are or not?"

Lily thought about it and began to realise that it really _wasn't_ that big a deal. "Not real-"

But Hannah slapped a hand over her mouth and said, "Okay. We'll do it. Just tell us."

* * *

"Guys, seriously, what are we doing?" Lily asked breathlessly as the Rogues hurried up the hill and made their way toward the castle. She knew exactly what they were doing - so she supposed the underlying question was really "Why are we doing this?"

"We're getting even, that's what," said Hannah from up ahead. "Remember? Animagus plan? Bringing them down whatever it takes?"

"Uh huh," replied Jamie, who, along with Lily, was lagging behind. "But what exactly do we plan to accomplish by following them back to the castle? For all we know, they're probably just going to check on... you know. Remus." She said his name as if it were a dirty word or something.

"Sure, but what if it's something bigger?" said Regan, sounding giddy with anticipation. "I've got a feeling this could be the night we catch them out on something huge."

Lily rolled her eyes. Of course Regan would be enthusiastic - she'd just spent two hours cooped up in a dark room, dressed as the most hideous witch any of them had ever seen. Any little excursion, no matter how pointless, would sound appealing to her at this point.

After finally getting an answer out of Paul, the Rogues had decided that this was their chance to put their plan into action. (Or rather, Hannah had decided - but after all that she'd been through, none of them had the heart to stop her from getting her revenge, so they went along with it.) They'd had no trouble collecting Regan from her station within the haunted house, but getting out of the Quidditch pitch had proved more difficult, even with a Head Girl and a Prefect in their numbers. McGonagall refused point blank to let them out, using the old "Professor Dumbledore has specifically ordered..." template as a basis for her argument. They'd had to wait until Slughorn took over as guardian of the front door, because Lily knew for a fact that he was far easier to persuade. Sure enough, when they'd approached him with the tactic of friendly conversation, he'd expressed his desire to see the inside of the haunted house, and the Rogues had had their opportunity for escape practically handed to them on a silver platter.

"I _did_ try it out a couple of days ago," he said, his eyes bulging with excitement, "but I'm dying to get in there and scope the whole place out. It's such a shame I couldn't get here until this hour, and now I'm on duty until nine..."

"Professor," Lily had offered, "I'd be quite happy to take your place if you wanted to go in for a while. I know I'm not a teacher, but I _am_ Head Girl, and... Well, you trust me not to let anybody out, don't you?"

It had taken a few more minutes for him to be fully convinced, but as soon as he'd disappeared behind the first door, Lily had quickly sought out a replacement entrance guard. She was counting on being back within half an hour (because honestly, how much could they really get up to by following the Marauders?), but even so, she tried to find somebody trustworthy. In the end, Jamie had suggested Frank Longbottom. They'd asked (or rather, begged) and, being the generous guy he was, he accepted. He even went one further and didn't say anything when he witnessed the four of them left the complex. Lily wasn't sure what they'd done to get into his good books, but at this point, she had little time to think about that. She could only be grateful for his help. As Head Girl, she felt terrible, irresponsible, for letting her teachers down like this, but if anybody could be trusted to fill her position, it was Frank.

Once the Rogues were out, they'd traipsed up the hill in the direction that Paul had pointed them. They saw no sign of the Marauders, but went on anyway, knowing that the boys had had a significant head start.

When she and Jamie finally reached the top of the hill, Lily stopped in her tracks. In the distant darkness, she thought she could see something: a tiny speck of light against the shadows. It was there alright, but who would be hanging out around the Black Lake at this time of night? Come to think of it, it appeared to be far, far away - perhaps even far enough to be outside the Hogwarts perimetre. As soon as the thought occurred to her, however, the light went out.

"Lily?" Jamie had stopped a couple metres ahead, having noticed her friend's distraction. "What is it?"

Lily narrowed her eyes very briefly in thought before shaking her head. "Nothing. Never mind. We'd better catch up."

But by the time they'd caught up to Regan and Hannah, they too had stopped.

"What is it?" Lily asked.

"Is it just me," Hannah said, her tone careful, measured, "or do those look suspiciously like piles of clothes to you?"

Confused, Lily looked in the direction that Hannah was pointing. Indeed, there were three heaps of what looked like various fabrics, but... Lily didn't understand. First, why would three people leave their clothes sitting by the base of a tree? And second, why were Regan and Hannah so hung up on it right now?

But then she realised just _which _tree they were looking at, and a whole lot of things clicked at once.

She gasped. "The Whomping Willow."

It was only right that Hannah and Regan should be suspicious. After all, hadn't this whole plan stemmed from their sighting of the Marauders provoking this very tree late at night? The scene came back to her with surprising clarity.

_Lily followed Jamie's gaze, and was alarmed by what she saw – the old Whomping Willow, very much alive and thrashing about as if trying to swat a thousand flies with its club-like branches. The raging tree gave the ground an enormous wallop, breaking the dirt into crumbling bits and shaking itself before taking aim again. It was worked up about something, becoming incessantly violent in its fury. By the time the tree took its fourth shot, Lily's night vision had adjusted and she saw a figure – a very human figure – scurry away from where the branch had just hit. The figure narrowly missed the next hit, ducking out of the way just in time. The tree continued to beat the ground with its furious blows, and the figure kept on darting out of the way. That was, until the tree suddenly straightened up and stood motionless in defeat._

"_How did it...?" Lily was flabbergasted._

_Only now did she notice how short and pudgy the figure-with-a-deathwish was. Now two more people – both with messy, dark hair – beckoned to him from near the Whomping Willow's trunk, and he stumbled stupidly forward, disappearing into the shadows. All three of the figures were gone then, and there was no indication left of what had just gone on save for a couple of rustled-up leaves that were still fluttering to the ground._

"You don't think...," Jamie began, but trailed off.

Hannah nodded. "Whatever they were doing that night a month ago, they're at it again."

"And wherever they are," Regan said, pointing disgustedly at the piles of clothes, "they're naked."

"No," Lily corrected, stepping in front of them. It had all occurred to her just now, and though she wasn't entirely sure of the technicalities herself, she felt the need to enlighten the others. She lifted up her pant leg again to show them the ankle band for added clarification. "Don't you see? Wherever they are, they're not in human form - they're Animagi, just like us!"

This revelation was met with two gasps and an angry exclamation of "Dammit, I thought we'd outsmarted them for once!"

They all fell silent, trying to digest this new information. Hannah was fuming; she had a tendency to get this way when the Marauders foiled one of their plans. Lily and Jamie were calm and thoughtful, while Regan seemed to simply be lost for words.

"This doesn't change anything," said Hannah determinedly, breaking the silence at last. "We've got a reason to find them now. I say we don't stop until we do."

Lily was certainly curious about what was going on, but she had a sudden and inexplicable feeling that they were about to get themselves into something that went way over their heads. "I'm not sure, Han," she tried to reason. "I mean, maybe we should just... leave it be? For now, I mean."

Hannah turned on her, absolutely livid. The fire in her eyes made Lily feel small and powerless. "_Leave it be?_" she repeated. By the sounds of it, she couldn't even fathom the notion. "Lily, this is _it_. This is our chance! We're on the verge of catching them out on something big here. Do you really want to throw away everything we've worked for this past month?"

"Well, no, but-"

"It could be something that's... none of our business," Jamie contributed quietly.

"Listen to you two!" Regan spoke up. "They've butted into our business plenty of times before. This battle has no limits - anything vaguely resembling a rule was thrown out the window years ago! This is no time to suddenly develop a conscience!"

Trying to ignore the anti-morality of Regan's pep talk, Lily sighed. "Okay," she said reluctantly, "but let's get one thing straight - any sign of actual danger and we're out of there. And they do _not_ find out it's us unless we get captured or something. Okay?"

Regan and Hannah nodded, obviously eager to get going. Lily looked to Jamie; she looked nervous, but gave a weak nod to say that she was with them no matter what.

"Alright. First things first," said Hannah. "We get closer to this tree."

As they trudged across the damp grass toward the Whomping Willow, Lily looked up at the sky. Night had fallen in its entirety now, and the moon was high above their heads, full and incandescent against the stark black of the sky. Lily hadn't known there was going to be a full moon tonight, but now that she noticed it, she realised how very appropriate it was for a Halloween evening. It sent a chill up Lily's spine as the Rogues moved closer to the sadistic tree.

"So what's so great about the Smashing Spruce?" Regan asked when they'd stopped just out of its reach. She'd adopted this as a sort of affectionate nickname for the tree even though she'd finally gotten its real name drilled into her head.

"Don't you remember?" said Hannah. "That night when we saw the Marauders down here, they just disappeared. Don't you think that's a little strange?"

Lily wasn't quite convinced that there was anything so strange about that. "Yeah, but Hannah, it was really dark out. We mightn't have seen-"

"Guys, look!" Jamie suddenly said in a hushed voice, pointing at a spot near the base of the tree. The animal was so well-camouflaged against its natural surroundings in the darkness that Lily barely saw it upon first glance, but once her eyes adjusted, she realised it was a rather pudgy rat. All that was visible was its upper half; the rest seemed to be hidden somewhere in the ground. Or rather...

"You don't reckon there's a hole in the roots there?" Hannah said, voicing Lily's thoughts exactly. By this time, the rat had scurried out from under the tree and taken off in the general direction of the Quidditch pitch. The Rogues took no further notice of it.

Regan wasn't about to sit around and wait. "Only one way to find out," she said, and then her clothes fell to the ground in a heap as she transformed into her parrot form.

"Regan!" Hannah scolded. "Wait for us, you bloody bird!"

The bird squawked an apology. Hannah, equally impatient, was the next to go, and the cat's white fur gleamed in the moonlight a moment later. Lily sighed and followed suit; Jamie did so a couple of seconds after her. It was amazing, Lily thought, what they'd accomplished in the short timeframe of a month. They all found the transformation process easy now, but perhaps that was only because they'd been so driven this past week.

Lily quite enjoyed being a doe. It allowed her to move quickly and silently, and the heightened senses were definitely a bonus. She did not, however, feel so confident when the four of them decided to make a run for it and head for the alleged hole in the ground. Her Animagus form was quite large compared to the others', and this tree was not known to be forgiving in the slightest. It was roused immediately, angrily shaking its branches and beginning to throw wallops blindly at the dirt. More than once, Lily narrowly escaped being crushed, and Jamie was thrown clean off her feet by one of its smaller limbs. Luckily, she managed to right herself in time to escape its next blow, and hurried toward the trunk where the rest of the Rogues had gathered. The tree was suited to guarding its perimetre, so it was harder for the tree to reach them when they were so close to its core. Lily felt a sense of safety wash over her. Still, as it writhed and tilted from side to side, Lily realised that it could still get them. They needed to hurry up.

Regan squawked and waved a wing at the spot where the hole was supposed to be, and sure enough, there it was, with enough breadth for almost any animal to fit through. Without stopping to ponder where this hole might go, the four of them dove through, anxious to get away from the danger of the Whomping Willow.

They found themselves in a narrow cavern lined with dry leaves and jagged rocks. After taking a bit of a tumble down from the hole, they gathered themselves, checked to make sure that they were all there and in one piece, and began to wander through the tunnel.

At the other end, there was a rickety ladder. Not the most convenient of things for a deer, but Lily was able to reach the top in a couple of agile bounds. Jamie came up behind her, and the four of them stood in front of something they'd never imagined to see in here: a rotting, undeniably man-made mahogany door.

_Great_, Lily thought. _A door_. Perhaps they should have considered their Animagus options a little more thoroughly, because, as she realised now, none of them were equipped with any sort of appendage that could _open a bloody door_. Granted, they hadn't been expecting to have to do anything of the sort out here in the wood-filled grounds of Hogwarts, but if Lily had learnt one important thing in all her time in the magical world, it was to expect the unexpected. She only wished she'd remembered that lesson when choosing her animal.

They exchanged desperate glances (apparently, nobody else had a plan, either) and Regan squawked to say "Well, what now?" and ruffled her feathers.

This turned out to be a mistake. At the sound of Regan's bird voice, there were noises from the other side of the door. The Rogues froze. And then the door swung open, and they found themselves face to face with an enormous black dog.

Behind it, Lily noted with immense surprise, was a tall, majestic stag with a full set of antlers.

There was a shadow moving behind a worn grey curtain in the corner.

Nobody moved for what seemed like a lifetime. Both parties were too shocked to do anything but stand there, staring at each other. Lily's eyes darted from the dog to the stag and back again, trying to figure out what was going on. These had to be the Marauders. But which ones, she wondered?

And then, for the umpteenth time that day, she had an epiphany.

_Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs..._

She'd always wondered at the ridiculous nicknames the Marauders had adopted in their fifth year (or sometime thereabouts). But until now, she'd never really given them any serious thought. They sounded comical if nothing else, and so naturally she'd written them off as just another part of the Marauders' idiotic, immature sense of humour.

But now...

Prongs. That had to be James. But why had he chosen a stag? Was it just a coincidence that Lily, the girl he'd been crushing on for too many years to count, had chosen to become his animal's female counterpart?

Padfoot was a little more obscure, but now, looking at the creature right in front of her, it sounded very dog-like to Lily. So Sirius was this whopping, vicious-looking beast blocking the door. How ironic that they'd used this in their symbolism-based argument against Hannah the other day, when they'd been grasping at straws for reasons why she might have become a white cat. Standing in a face-off position on either side of the threshold, Sirius large and dishevelled and Hannah tiny and sleek - the two of them could not have been any more opposite.

But Peter wasn't here, and neither was Remus. Wormtail was an odd one; if not an actual worm, then perhaps he was some kind of rodent? As for Moony... Well, Lily had a feeling Regan would suggest a baboon for its bare bottom (and spend a whole afternoon laughing at her own lame joke) but that just didn't seem right for somebody like him.

The dog seemed to snap out of its shock-induced stupour and adopted a fiercely protective stance, spreading its front legs and baring its teeth, which were pointed and yellow. Sirius let out a rumbling growl.

Hannah, however, was quick. She shot, quick as a flash, between his forearms and managed to cross half the room before Sirius had even had a chance to react. He whipped angrily around, giving Jamie the opportunity to dart past him on one side; Regan flew over his head, distracting him enough for Lily to dash through on the other. Sirius, she thought once the four of them were through, would make a horrendous guard dog.

The stag stood completely still, his gaze flicking around as he tried to assess the situation. Apparently, he wasn't taking quite the same approach as Sirius (who had turned around fully and was madly snapping his jaws at the cat and the bird), but was instead standing back and trying to figure out what to do. Lily was doing much the same; standing out of the fray, observing the others, frantically trying to decide whether it was best to leave, change back, join in the fight... or just stand there like she was currently doing.

She barely noticed when the shadow moved out from behind the curtain and loped out the door.

She couldn't tell what kind of creature it was exactly - it was moving far too fast and she was hardly paying attention - but from the glimpse she caught, she could tell that it was large, hunched and foul-looking.

The stag was on red alert as soon as he saw this happen. It all happened too quickly for the Rogues to even begin to understand what was going on. James prodded Sirius (whose attention was still focused on the intruders) with his tines, and the dog jumped up in shock. James made a motion with his head toward the shadowless curtain, and the two of them flew through the door at an incredible speed.

Regan squawked an "after them!" sort of war cry, and the Rogues - some reluctantly, others caught up in the spirit of the hunt - took off after them. Down through the cavern, up the narrower tunnel, and out into the night.

The Marauders were far ahead already. It would be hopeless trying to catch up with them, but the Rogues were smaller - less wind resistant - and had enough adrenaline to carry them a long way. They sprinted down the hill, desperate to close the gap between the two groups. When they got closer, Lily could see that, even further ahead, being chased by James and Sirius, was the creature from behind the curtain. She still couldn't seem to make out its exact shape.

Lily wondered again why she was doing this. It was evident that the Marauders had something entirely different going on here - something that had nothing to do with the Rogues and, like Jamie had suggested, was absolutely none of their business. In previous years, Lily might have disregarded this "conscience" (as Regan had called it) without thinking twice, but this time, it was more difficult. She had to keep telling herself that she was doing this for Hannah - for the Rogues.

As this moral battle waged inside her head, Lily found that she was letting her legs carry her forward without thinking - and, as a result, she didn't notice the thick root sticking out of the ground right in front of her. Her back hoof hooked under it and she skidded forward, slicing her forearm on a sharp rock half-buried in the soil. A searing pain shot up her leg and she tried to cry out, but she couldn't make a sound.

Next to her, Jamie paused momentarily and shot a concerned look in Lily's direction, but Lily was already on her feet again, pushing past the pain and taking off after the others. She ignored the blood flowing down her leg and picked up her pace, eventually catching up with Hannah and Regan.

They were closing in on the Marauders now, but there was still a way to go. Lily was already getting tired, and the pain in her leg was becoming harder and harder to ignore. Still, they kept on going, and they barely even faltered when Sirius abruptly veered off in another direction, trying to create a diversion. Even without any form of communication, the Rogues knew what to do; Hannah followed Sirius and Regan took the same route overhead, while Lily and Jamie remained on the stag's tail.

Lily desperately hoped this would be over soon. Maybe they would lose sight of the Marauders and be forced to withdraw from the chase. That prospect was looking pretty inviting at this point. In fact, if she just slowed her pace a little bit, she could almost justify pulling out...

Lily shook off this thought and reminded herself of her purpose. _Hannah_, she thought. _Hannah deserves this. _And she pushed on, moving as fast as her legs could carry her. Beside her, Jamie was panting.

Neither of them was expecting it when James skidded to a halt. Taken by surprise, they stopped, too. Lily hadn't realised until now, but they'd been gradually moving closer and closer to the Quidditch pitch, where the haunted house was looking rather quiet. This, however, wasn't important - what was important was the creature standing by one of the walls of the pitch, breathing heavily, baring claws that looked like daggers.

It was the creature that James had been chasing, and it was right there, only a few metres from the stag, probably less than twenty from the fox and the doe.

It sniffed the air, catching a scent that caused its eyes to light up like shining rubies. Its head swivelled in Lily and Jamie's direction and its eyes widened as it caught sight of them: two weak, frail animals stunned into immobility, one with dark blood pouring down her front leg.

The wolf let out a howl that pierced into the night, and it was then that the final piece of the puzzle fell into place.

_Moony..._

* * *

Regan and Hannah had been cornered. They'd almost caught up to Sirius when he'd suddenly rounded on Hannah, chasing her in the direction of his choosing. She'd wound up in a shallow cave in the Forbidden Forest, backed against a wall as the great black dog closed in on her. Regan could have flown away at any time, but she chose to stick by Hannah's side, loyal to her best friend through thick and thin.

And then, just like that, the dog wasn't a dog anymore. In its place was Sirius Black, dressed in a robe, staring at them with furious, piercing eyes.

"Oh, what the hell," he said loudly. "Let's cut the crap. You knew it was me anyway."

He began to pace back and forth, breathing heavily. He finally stopped in front of them, his stormy eyes narrowed. "Let me guess... _Milton_." He pointed an accusatory finger at Hannah, and then at Regan. "And I'm going to say... _Tain_."

The cat and the bird exchanged a look before both changing back into their human forms, accepting defeat - for now. They folded their arms so simultaneously that it would have been comical in any other situation.

"It's okay," said Regan sarcastically, "I was getting sick of being at the bottom of the food chain anyway."

Hannah ignored her quip and barked at Sirius, "And how the hell did you know that?"

Sirius looked smug. "Well, I hate cats, so that one was obvious." He turned to Regan with a patronising look. "And only _you_ would be stupid enough to become a tropical bird in a place like Hogwarts."

Regan made a face at him and said, "Yeah, well, I can fly."

"So you didn't consider a hawk? Or an owl?"

"Oh, shut up. Those are lame."

"That is _not _the point," Hannah interjected, reprimanding them both for straying from the matter at hand. "Are you going to let us out of here or not? I don't see what good it does you, holding us captive in here."

"Oh, you're not getting out of here," Sirius responded with a kind of resolution that was almost frightening. "And I beg to differ. See, there's a little something in this world called _private business_. I don't know if you've heard of it. Anyway, since you dunderheads decided to follow us, we're in a bit of a pickle, and I think Prongs would appreciate it if I held you back as long as I could."

As soon as he finished speaking, Hannah made to slip past him, but Sirius was too quick - in one swift movement, he'd slammed both of his hands against the walls of the cave, blocking any potential exit. Hannah glared at him as she shrunk back against the wall.

"And if you turn into that bird again, Tain, and try to fly out of here, I'll bloody strangle you," Sirius growled. "Like I said, you're not going anywhere."

* * *

Lily barely had time to come to her senses before the werewolf was tearing after her, chasing her into the Forbidden Forest. She and Jamie ran and ran, their feet barely touching the ground as they fled through the woods, the trees on either side of them turning into one long blur as they pushed themselves to go faster and faster.

No matter how fast they went, though, they could still hear the werewolf's massive hands and feet pounding into the ground, its barks and ripping snarls cutting into the air right behind them. Adrenaline pushed them faster than anything; they'd already been almost completely drained before this new chase had begun, but a they'd found a new source of energy the moment they'd begun to fear for their lives. Had they not, Lily thought she would have dropped dead of exhaustion long ago, and the werewolf would have been cleaning up her remains.

Things got worse when the wolf began to chase them uphill. Lily's limbs were already becoming weak and shaky, and her wounded leg felt just about ready to give out. Finally, the ground began to even out, but then there was another problem: not fifty metres ahead, the ground forest floor suddenly disappeared. They were approaching the edge of a cliff.

_This is it_, Lily thought sadly. She slowed her pace as the sheer drop came nearer, bracing herself for the impact from behind.

It did not come. Lily came to a complete stop in front of a large oak tree. Jamie, who'd been a metre or two to her left the entire time, stopped only a short distance away, and they both whipped around to see what had become of their pursuer.

The werewolf and the stag were locked in fierce combat in the clearing on the cliff's edge. The stag had come at it from behind, ploughing its antlers into the wolf's side. But werewolves were some of the strongest and fastest creatures in existence; there was no way James could subdue it on his own, especially after running hundreds of metres uphill. Lily felt a pang of horror as she realised what James was getting himself into... And it was all thanks to her.

The werewolf roared and swiped at the deer's haunch, narrowly missing. James took aim for another blow with his antlers, but this time, the wolf was prepared; he took an almighty swing with one of his arms and threw James right out of the clearing, where the stag went rolling down the hill they had just climbed.

Lily wanted to scream, but her deer form didn't allow her to make any noise at all. Even if she could have, there wouldn't have been time to focus on James; the wolf was advancing on her again, its eyes alight with thirst for her blood. She backed up, but there was no room left between her and the tree. And behind that... there was only the drop. She began to tremble.

The werewolf snarled and lunged at her, its teeth bared and its arms outstretched. Every muscle in Lily's body tensed as she awaited the hit.

Jamie came out of nowhere, stunning both Lily and the werewolf as she leapt through the air toward the attacker. The weight of her fox body wasn't enough to throw the wolf off balance, but the shock was. It stumbled to the side, giving Lily a clear path to make an escape. She wasn't about to let Jamie's act of idiotic bravery be in vain, so she took it, crossing to the other side of the clearing and standing out of the chaos.

The werewolf was fully focused on Jamie now. It seemed intent on ripping her to shreds. Somehow, though, Jamie managed to evade its every swipe, jumping out of the way just in time. Lily was impressed; she'd never seen Jamie fight like this before. And to think it was _Remus_ behind those wolfish eyes... She couldn't fathom how difficult this must be for her friend, assuming she had put the puzzle together by now. (Although it wasn't _really_ Remus, Lily understood, because in becoming a werewolf he'd completely lost his mind. Still, it was an odd spectacle to witness.)

The wolf became more and more aggravated as she dodged its claws and razor-sharp teeth, which were snapping in her face, but for the first minute or two, Jamie held her ground with astounding proficiency. Until-

The wolf caught Jamie off guard with a swipe across the face. Its talons struck her in a slashing downward arc, and the fox whimpered as she was thrown backward onto the ground.

That was enough for Lily. She launched herself into the battle with as much force as she could muster. She head-butted the wolf in the back, threw herself against it, did anything she could to divert its attention. She barely noticed when James came up beside her to help, using his antlers to their full advantage. Unfortunately, the beast seemed to be permanently fixated on Jamie now. The fox couldn't see a thing with all that blood running down her face, and as she lay helplessly on the forest floor, she was unable to move out of the way when the wolf grabbed her again, digging its claws in and creating deep gashes in her torso. In a final, desperate bid for freedom, Jamie sunk her teeth into the wolf's shoulder. It howled in pain...

...And with a single, enraged swing, flung her over the edge of the cliff.

* * *

**A/N:** Wow. It's over.  
Anyway, I'm not in the mood for long author's notes at the moment, so I'll try to keep this one relatively brief. Just a couple of things:

1) It might interest you to know that this chapter alone is longer than the longest piece of original fiction I've ever finished (not written, but finished). It seems I've taken my inability to condense a story to new heights. I apologise, but it had to be done so that I could fit everything into this chapter that I wanted to. I almost succeeded (there are two short scenes that I left out). Anyway, let me know - did the length bother you? Was it a good thing? I'd really like to know what chapter length suits you guys, because (as you can see) they tend to vary a lot in this story...

2) A useless little piece of trivia: TMATR now comes up as a Google Search suggestion when you type as much as "The Marauders a" into the search box. This makes me happy. Go test it out if you don't believe me. :D

3) TMATR is officially A QUARTER DONE! Yes, only a quarter... But I'm being realistic here, guys. If it took me twenty-five chapters to get to the end of October, then how long is it going to take me to get to the end of the year? And yes, I do intend to go to the end of the year. A hundred chapters is a lot, but it's a very nice, neat number, don't you think? Maybe if this story is super-long, then I can possibly justify calling it "epic". I've always wanted to write an epic. Anyway, my point is: This is sort of the end of an era in TMATR right now. There are going to be a lot of changes coming up after this chapter, some of which will be good, and others... Well, I'll let you wait and see. Think of this as a season finale of sorts (and hey, season finales are often twice the length of regular episodes, right? Yeah, that's just pushing it...). I'm actually going to be focusing on revision for a little while, but that won't stop me from writing the next chapter. I just need a tiny break, and I'll be back at it in no time.

Okay, so that wasn't brief... But anyway, if you have a comment, make sure to leave a review. I do love reviews. :) Also, if you have the time, check out the TMATR website. I've done a lot of work on it lately, and I'd like to get a few opinions on it. The link is at the top of my profile.

Until next time!

~PrincessEarth

**P.S.** Just a quick note: If it interests you at all, **RainbowCrystal** and I are co-authoring a story on our shared account, **Seven Scribbles**. It's another Marauder story (with Lily, of course) but we've put a bit of a spin on it. Anyway, I won't give anything else away, but if you want to have a look, Chapter One is up now. We have fairly high hopes for this story, so it would mean a lot to both of us if you read and reviewed it. :)


	26. Awakening

**Plot:** The infamous Marauders weren't alone in their love for pranking. In fact, they often had their butts kicked by a bunch of girls. Now, this is it. Seventh year. Four girls, four boys. Two opposing pranking teams. One hell of a battle to be won.

**Disclaimer:** Sad as it may be, I am not J.K. Rowling in disguise, and therefore I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters or themes involved. (I do, however, own Jamie, Hannah and Regan and most elements of this specific plot—so I'd appreciate it if no poaching occurred. Thanks.)

**Previously, in The Marauders and the Rogues...  
**(Oh boy, here we go...)  
Hannah was being all evasive, so the Rogues came up with a master plan to corner her with a book written by a maniac and get her to spill everything about her self-abusive behaviour, her troubles with Sirius, and the fact that (shock, horror) she secretly thinks he's "bloody perfect".  
James and Lily had a Heads meeting to finishing organizing their haunted house idea, in which James invented a cool gadget called a "Scare-o-meter" and tested it out on Lily by nearly hitting her in the face with a clock. Oh, Jamesy-Poo, you sure know how to woo a girl.  
Lily convinced Regan to dress up as a typical "Muggle-style" witch for firstie-scaring purposes by bribing her with cake and crayons.  
So the Marauders, as well as "three ladies and a... what the hell is _that?_" went down to the haunted house to finish setting up, and various mishaps ensued, including Hannah falling into a pit of lava (but not really) and Sirius getting seriously (ha, ha) mad, and... Yeah, that was about it.  
The Marauders and the Rogues decided to have a three-on-three "Try Not to Scream" competition using Scare-o-meters, which Peter subsequently lost for the Marauders because he is such a freaking girl.  
The gang stumbled into the Boggart Room at the back of the haunted house, revealing that Sirius doesn't want the Marauders Map to burst into flames ('cause that totally wasn't symbolism or anything), Peter is scared of everything, Jamie is scared of her friends dying (namely Lily, whose Boggart-corpse scared the living daylight out of dear Prongsie) and Hannah... er, has a phobia of cracked mirrors?  
The Marauders mysteriously disappeared after that, so the Rogues decided to stalk them, got some deets out of Paul Abbott, and escaped the haunted house. They saw the Marauders' clothes by the Whomping Willow and eventually put the pieces together. (They're sitting naked somewhere in the grounds. Duh.)  
Thus ensued a series of dramatic events including Hannah and Regan being cornered in a cave, Remus the werewolf chasing Lily and Jamie up a hill, Lily almost dying, and the big (and very literal) cliffhanger): Jamie getting thrown off a cliff. YIPPEE, happy day for everyone!

Phew. That was tiring. So if you're not already exhausted from reading my attempt at condensing TBDO, feel free to, you know, read this massive chunk of text down here... If you feel like it...

**

* * *

**

Chapter Twenty-Six: Awakening

Time stopped.

At least, for Lily it did.

The moment she saw Jamie fly over the edge of the rocky precipice, things seemed to slow right down until the whole world was practically at a standstill: the werewolf, thrashing angrily beside her; every sound that filled the forest—the rustling of the overhead canopy, the wolf's growls, the scuffling of animal feet on the forest floor—abruptly silenced; the wind, no longer blasting angrily into her face and making her eyes water, but instead creating a solid wall of cold that seeped into every inch of her body.

Lily couldn't think, couldn't bring herself to move—and even if she'd had the vocal chords required, she'd have been unable to make a sound.

This couldn't be happening.

In fact, as the world lay before her dazed eyes, frozen in the midst of all the chaos, she began to believe that this was all some crazy dream. Everything that had happened—everything that was happening in this instant—was too unreal to be anything more than that. Remus, a werewolf... The rest of the Marauders chasing him through the forbidden forest, each in their own Animagus form—Animagi, just like the Rogues...

Jamie, falling... Falling...

It was in that moment, with that horrible realization, that the world whirred back into motion; the werewolf threw its head back and unleashed an ear-piercing howl, and Lily felt everything speed back up, jolting her brutally back to reality. She was barely aware of her body transforming involuntarily back to its usual human form, the harsh wind biting through the thin layer of clothing she wore like icy water as she fell to her hands and knees, letting out a cry to match the wolf's. Her cry turned into a whimper and then a series of sobs, and she soon forgot about everything around her—the wolf, the stag, the dangerous cliff side—as she scrambled forward through the leaf litter and sodden dirt, desperate to peek over the edge. She stumbled once or twice when she cut her hands on twigs and sharp rocks, but she finally made it, and, ignoring how precariously she was perched on the rocks at the edge, leaned over to see what had become of her best friend.

She felt as though a hand had closed around her heart. There, down at the bottom, lay a crumpled figure, limbs splayed in every which direction, meek and shrunken by distance. She was more or less intact, it appeared, but it was difficult to tell; it was had been a long fall, that was for sure. The shock had forced her to change back from fox to human, but she wasn't moving. And the worst part of all: even from here, Lily could tell that there was blood pooled around her head—lots of it.

"Oh, God," she heard herself say, and her hands flew up to her tear-streaked face as another sob shook her body. "Jamie...," she croaked. "Jamie, please, no..."

A voice suddenly rang out behind her. "Lily! Get back from there! Are you mad? MOVE!" There was a sound like crumbling skyscrapers as the wolf growled again, and a monstrous shadow fell over her.

This should have been a wake-up call for Lily, but these sounds barely penetrated her mind as she sat on her knees, staring down at Jamie's broken form. Tears poured liberally out of her eyes and blurred her vision, until she could almost feel herself falling, too...

And then a hand closed around her upper arm and lifted her cleanly off the ground, and she was whipped through the air so quickly that she barely even had time to register a single thought before she was back on the ground again, this time on her feet—and pressed into the trunk of a massive tree. As she came to her senses, she feared for a moment that she might have been snatched up by the werewolf, and that, for the umpteenth time this evening, she might be inches away from her demise.

But it wasn't the wolf. James's face hovered just in front of her own, anger and panic and fear all merged into one wild expression as he stared right into her, his hazel eyes intensely serious. Only now did she realize that he, too, had changed out of his Animagus form—and if she'd been in any state to think normally, she'd have noticed his fully-clad figure and would have been rather irked at the fact that the Marauders clearly had this whole clothing thing scoped out far more thoroughly than the Rogues.

Then again, from what she'd seen so far, she could only assume that this was a _much_ older habit for them than it was for the Rogues.

Her mind, however, was far away from trivial things like that. Her best friend had just fallen off a cliff, and may well be dead by now. She didn't care how scantily she was dressed—all she wanted to do in that moment was hurry down to the bottom of the ravine and see if Jamie was okay. She had a horrible feeling in the pit of her stomach that the outcome wouldn't be good, but she desperately wanted—desperately _needed_—to know.

James, unfortunately, was apparently more concerned about the danger the werewolf posed. He kept her pinned to the tree with one arm, glancing every now and then around the trunk to make sure it wasn't about to sneak up on them. Lily could hear the creature's low growls turning into something like whimpers, but it didn't seem as though it was moving at all; from the sounds of it, the wolf was ignoring them—for the moment, at least.

"What are you doing?" Lily hissed, more hysterically than angrily. "I have to... We have to go back—" Before she could finish her scrambled train of thought, James pressed a hand over her mouth, silencing her, and shook his head resolutely.

"No," he whispered fiercely. "If you stay around here any longer, you'll be killed. We have to go. Right. Now." Lily wanted to object, but the fire in his eyes was so powerful that she could only avert hers and nod sadly. Tears slipped out of her eyes once more, falling onto James's hand where he held it over her mouth. There was a momentary lapse in his steady gaze and his eyes softened sympathetically as he pulled his hand away.

"Look, I'm really sorry, Lily, but we _need_ to get out of here. It might already be too late." She didn't know whether he was talking about Jamie's fate or the werewolf lurking just on the other side of the tree, but she was barely listening anymore. Her whole body had gone numb.

James glanced around the tree, and when he turned back to her, he was all business again. "Right. In about five seconds I'm going to change back, and you're going to get on my back as quickly as you can so I can get you out of here. Understand?"

"What?" said Lily, suddenly defensive. "I can change back too, James; I can run! I—"

He shook his head furiously and interrupted her; "No. You're too cut up—you'll get left behind. Just do what I—"

A branch snapped loudly overhead, and Lily felt herself being pulled through the air once again as James threw her out of the way just in time to avoid the claws of the werewolf, which was advancing on them again, swinging its massive arms blindly at them in a feral sort of rage and snarling. Evidently, it had heard them. Lily drew in a sharp breath and stumbled backward, James clutching onto her wrist all the while, as if desperate to keep her within arm's reach. She couldn't help but stare at the savage beast, trying to comprehend that it was really Remus—shy, sweet Remus—behind those glinting yellow eyes and razor-sharp teeth—that it had really been Remus who'd attacked Jamie and sent her flying to her potential doom. As much as she thought about it, she couldn't quite convince herself that somebody so gentle could become something like _this_, even if it was an involuntary transformation. And as much as she stared into the werewolf's eyes, she could never quite picture it as being the Remus she knew; it was too huge a contrast to even visualize. If this was indeed Remus Lupin, then his mind was long gone. She didn't need to rely on her DADA research to know that he had no idea, and no control over, what he was doing tonight.

She was so distracted by this disturbing thought that she narrowly missed having her skin shredded to ribbons once again, but when she felt James's grip on her arm loosen and turned to see the magnificent stag standing there, looking at her urgently, she remembered where she was and what she had to do. She hated to leave Jamie behind like this, but in that split second she had no choice—and so, without another thought, she reached out and slung herself onto its back.

No sooner did she have her arms fastened around James's neck than he took off at full speed, bolting down the hill they'd climbed in their previous mad frenzy to escape the wolf. Lily clung on for dear life, threading her fingers together in an attempt to secure herself. This time, the escape was much faster; James was obviously far more accustomed to his deer legs than Lily was, and it certainly helped that he was so athletic to begin with. Trees soared past on either side of them, so quickly that they all merged into one dark, greenish blur. All they had to light their way was the moonlight filtering through the canopy overhead, but Lily wasn't even sure James had a specific destination in mind. Every now and then he would make a turn so sharp that Lily was almost thrown clean off his back, as he cut in and out of the trees and traced a crazy pattern through the forest. Once she managed to adjust her grip and make sure she wasn't going to fall off the next time he veered left or right, she realized that it made sense. Right now, all they really needed to think about was getting away from the werewolf.

Lily's heart pounded violently in her chest as she thought about it. The wolf could be right behind them at this second, ready to sink its claws—or, even worse, its teeth—into her back or James's. Sitting here like this, she felt sort of helpless, and kept wanting to turn around and see if the wolf was on their tail; at the same time, though, she felt an overwhelming sense of security as she rode swiftly away on the stag's back.

While the wind beating against Lily's face swept her tears away and froze her so deeply that she became numb and emotionless, she could not forget what she had left behind. It was like something was tugging at a part of her brain, and the farther she got from the ravine, the worse the nagging became. Biting her lip, she tried to focus on the here and now, on the escape.

After a while, Lily realized that they must have left the wolf behind. When she became gradually more adjusted to the speed they were travelling at, her hearing came into focus, and there were no pounding footsteps behind them, no snarling or howling to be heard. Maybe the werewolf had been confused by their sudden flight, or maybe James had somehow—miraculously—managed to outrun it, perhaps by taking such a crazy route through the darkened forest.

Or maybe, Lily thought, the wolf was still on their tail, but was simply being as silent as possible in order to sneak up on its prey. The thought sent a chill up her spine that had nothing to do with the cold weather.

James's stamina was incredible. He kept up this rapid pace for longer than Lily could have imagined, darting around in all sorts of directions. Finally, he began to slow down, and Lily braced herself, still slightly doubtful of whether or not the werewolf was still following them, worrying that maybe James was only slowing down because he was tired. When nothing hit her from behind, she let out the enormous breath she'd been holding for quite some time.

At last, James came to a stop. He lowered himself to his knees and Lily took this as her cue to dismount; shaking all over, she slipped off his back and landed on the forest floor, her unsteady legs promptly buckling underneath her weight and causing her to fall to the forest floor. She landed on her raw hands and knees, and before she knew it, the tears were flooding out of her eyes again. A thousand emotions hit her at once: relief, despair, desperation, longing, guilt, grief... The list went on, but worst of all was the despair. She felt an overwhelming sense of hopelessness, knowing that she was so far away from Jamie now that she could do nothing to help her.

If she could even be helped, that was.

How had they even gotten to this point? Earlier on, she'd been enjoying herself, with the Marauders, of all people, in the Hogwarts Haunted House. It had been a carefree Halloween night—disregarding the mishap with the Boggart—and might have stayed that way, had they only thought to leave this Marauder-stalking business alone. Of course, there was no way they could have predicted what would happen when they walked through the door of the Shrieking Shack.

She thought about Hannah and Regan, and wondered where they were. Considering they'd taken off in the opposite direction, she could only assume they were safe.

But then she thought about Hannah and Regan, and how they'd been so gung-ho to embark on this mission in the first place, and an intense and inexplicable bitterness was added to the list of emotions.

She couldn't seem to stop her body from shaking. It wasn't the cold, she knew—these weren't shivers, but uncontrollable spasms of fear and exhaustion. She had no idea why _she_ was the one who was exhausted—surely James, who'd carried her on that massively long detour through every nook and cranny of the Forbidden Forest, should have been ready to collapse by now. She turned her head slightly to the right and saw him standing there, back in human form, panting and red-faced and bent over with his hands on his knees, his shirt plastered to his torso and sweat dripping from the tip of his nose. At that moment, she was filled with an enormous sense of gratitude—to think he'd gone through all that for _her_—and was hit with a nearly irrepressible urge to hug him. (On any day but this one, she'd have committed herself to a mental asylum the moment she realized she was thinking such thoughts—but right now, she was too distracted to exercise such self-discipline.)

Then she remembered Jamie lying on a bed of rocks far away from here, and her mood collapsed once more, giving way to complete and utter misery.

"James," she said, her voice wavering as it caught on the huge lump in her throat. "You don't... Jamie... You don't think...?"

James, who had seemingly caught his breath, was now somewhat frantically kicking leaves aside, clearing the forest floor as if searching for something. When Lily spoke, he turned around briefly and regarded her with sympathetic eyes.

"I dunno, Lily," he said gently, his voice more serious than she'd ever heard it before. "She... Well, it was a long fall. And I'm not sure if Re—if it would've gone back for her."

Lily hadn't thought of that. The notion made her chest tighten and her stomach begin to turn. "You mean it would go after her again?" she squeaked, panic rising from within her. Even if it didn't, she was beginning to realize now—and if Jamie wasn't already a lost cause—they'd been stupid to leave her behind. Completely idiotic. Why had she let James persuade her like that? Hysteria began to creep up her throat once again. "Well... then, we have to go back for her!" she exclaimed desperately, scrambling to her feet at once. She felt dizzy and her legs threatened to give way again, but now she was filled with purpose and she forced herself to remain upright. "We have to go back, James!"

James, who had finally stopped moving leaves, turned to face her again. He looked at her with those same eyes, filled with sympathy and something else—like he knew something she didn't.

"I'm really sorry, Lily, but we can't go back," he said simply, and bent down to pick something up. "At least, you can't." Lily saw now that what he had in his hands appeared to be a blanket of leaves, but was really a square mesh-type network of twigs and vines, woven through with scattered foliage to make it appear natural. It looked like the sort of thing she'd seen in Muggle war movies—the sort of thing used to conceal a hiding place. She looked down, and sure enough, there was a large, dark hole at James's feet where he'd lifted the cover away.

"What are you talking about?" Lily exclaimed, her voice rising in pitch and volume. "I can't just _sit_ here, if that's what you think I'm going to do! That's my best friend back there—we _have_ to go back!"

James, perhaps sensing that she was about to go completely wild and potentially alert the wolf to their location again, took several swift steps toward her and stared straight into her eyes. There was something almost angry in his gaze now, but Lily wouldn't relent, and kept hers steady and imploring.

"As I'm sure you've gathered by now," James said in a low tone, "that's one of _my _best friends back there, too. No offense or anything, but you have absolutely no idea what we're dealing with. I do. So I need you to stay here while I go get help—I can't let you get hurt, too."

Lily had opened her mouth to interrupt him, but she snapped it shut went he uttered that last sentence. He sounded so sincere that she only stared at him for a second more before dropping her gaze to the ground and stiffly nodding her head.

"C'mon," he told her, and reached out to grab her by the arm. He led her over to the hole in the ground, which she noticed was less a hole and more a tunnel. It looked like something an animal would build—some kind of burrow, maybe—but much larger. Large enough to accommodate a person or two.

"Do you need help?" James asked kindly, nodding toward the hole. It looked shallow enough that one could get in or out without much trouble, but still deep enough that Lily felt a little bit apprehensive about jumping right in. She was beginning to feel a little too dependent, though, and decided she'd rather do one thing on her own.

"I'm fine, thanks," she said, and dropped down so that she was sitting on the dirt floor with her legs hanging over the edge of the hole. She used her arms to fling herself forward, and then she fell for about half a second until she hit the bottom. A searing pain shot up her calves, but she righted herself quickly and turned back to look up at James, whose eyes were clouded over with something dark.

"How'd you know where to find this thing?" she asked.

James hesitated a moment before replying, "We've had to take a lot of... precautions. This was one of them."

Lily said nothing. She was thinking about Remus again, and about Jamie, struggling to understand what the Marauders must have been going through for the past who-knew-how-many years. Trying to understand what was going to happen after tonight.

"You alright?" he asked her, though his voice was almost void of feeling.

"Yeah," she said. "I'll be fine."

He started to turn around, but Lily stopped him. "James." And then, in a mere whisper: "Please bring her back."

He swallowed, shoved his hands in his pockets, and cracked a very small, very sad smile. "I'll do what I can, Lily." And then he lifted the leafy cover and fitted it into place over her head, shrouding her in darkness. The sound of his footsteps faded away, quickening with every stride. She thought she heard something scraping into wood, and after that there was silence.

And then Lily was all alone.

* * *

"So you're _actually_ planning on keeping us here all night," said Regan, voicing her annoyance for the billionth time in the past hour or so.

"If I have to," said Sirius lazily. He sat in the mouth of the cave, his back rested against one of the walls and his feet propped up on the other, casually picking up twigs, breaking them apart, and then throwing them out into the open. Regan and Hannah had made several attempts to get past him, but—infuriatingly—he had a defensive manoeuvre for every trick they tried, and they always ended up on their faces or their backsides, still confined within the cave.

"I don't get it," Hannah snapped impatiently. "What's the point? If this is what you do when someone catches you doing something stupid, then how do you know your idiot friends aren't doing the same thing to Lily and Jamie over on the other side of the grounds?"

Sirius's face broke into a half-smile, but the expression on his face was dark. "Oh, trust me—they're not."

"I wouldn't trust you as far as I could throw you, Black."

"Yeah, well, I wouldn't throw you as far as I could trust you. Too much bloody effort."

Anyone who'd witnessed a single squabble between the two would have expected Hannah to fire something equally derisive back without even a second's hesitation. After all, that was just the way her arguments with Sirius worked—the way they'd worked for the past six years. It was old habit for both of them. So when Sirius's remark was met with nothing but an uncharacteristic silence, his eyebrows shot up and Regan's head snapped toward Hannah, who had a strangely dark, thoughtful expression on her face and was staring down at her knees.

After shooting a confused glance at her friend, Regan took it upon herself to answer Sirius with, "That's only because you've got the biceps of a two-year-old girl."

He gave a short bark of laughter, but conveniently ignored Regan and kept his eyes scornfully narrowed on Hannah. He hadn't failed to notice her bizarre state of unresponsiveness, and he wasn't about to let it slide. "Cat got your tongue, Milton?" he sneered, chuckling at his own pathetic humour.

"Looks like a cat got your face," was Hannah's feeble response, mumbled noncommittally as she continued to stare at her knees.

Another sharp laugh. "Ouch," Sirius joked. "Nice one, Milton. That cut me _deep_, that did."

"Lay off, Black," said Regan, raising her voice in a sort of warning.

"Or what? You'll peck my eyes out? I told you before, Tain, if you even _try _to change back into your stup—"

"Look, a distraction!"

Both of them were so shocked to hear Hannah's voice so loud and clear that, in spite of her pathetic diversion tactic, they turned to look where she was pointing. By the time her words really registered in their minds, she'd already darted to the mouth of the cave and was in the process of leaping over Sirius's legs.

"Bloody hell, Milton!" he shouted, lurching forward just in time to catch her by the ankle. Hannah, apparently unprepared for this, toppled forward and took a nosedive into the gravelly ground, landing face first and scattering pebbles and dead leaves everywhere.

Sirius laughed, but when she twisted around to glare at him and had blood trickling down her chin, he stopped abruptly.

"Oh, you're going to pay for that," said Regan dangerously, standing up and advancing on him. But Sirius, looking pained and a little exasperated, just grabbed Hannah by the arm, yanked her up and shoved her into Regan, and the two of them stumbled back into their original place at the back of the cave. Regan looked murderous, but Hannah restrained her and shook her head, giving her a look that seemed to say, "_It's not worth it_."

The two girls slid down onto the floor and sighed almost simultaneously, defeated once again. Hannah used her sleeve to wipe the blood off her face, and Regan could see now that she had a split lip coupled with an angry red graze down one side of her jaw. She felt a surge of fury toward the boy sitting at the front of the cave, blocking their way, staring straight ahead with an oddly dark look on his features, his eyes narrowed at the stone wall. She could tell he was just avoiding looking at them, knowing that if he did, he would have to explain himself—or worse, apologize. And never, in their six years of being so-called enemies, had either Hannah or Sirius ever said the word "sorry" to the other.

Hannah seemed to be recovering from the attack, which, though nobody said as much aloud, had been completely out of line. But Regan, who was used to standing up for her friends, couldn't let it go that easily. She'd been harbouring a huge amount of resentment for Sirius ever since Hannah had come clean about her condition, but now her anger had been brought to a boil and was threatening to spill over the edges. He'd already damaged her emotionally, and that was bad enough—but now she'd been physically hurt, and Regan found it difficult to restrain herself from physically hurting _him_.

"I can't believe you fell for that," Hannah scoffed across the space after a while, breaking the tense silence that had fallen upon them. She wiped a hand across her mouth, grimacing when it still came away with fresh blood and then wiping it on her robes. They were already tattered and muddied enough that one more stain would hardly matter.

Without looking at her, Sirius responded almost automatically: "I hate to break it to you, but I think _you_ were the one doing most of the falling."

"And that was _my_ fault?"

"It's not like I didn't warn you! Were you too stupid to learn your lesson the first fifty times you got your ass kicked?"

"Oh, I would hardly call this an ass-kicking, Black. A bit of blood and dirt? This is nothing."

"Actually, you're right. It's an improvement on what your face looked like before."

Hannah's bottom lip twitched, but she bit down on it hard, forcing her mouth into a rigid line and causing more blood to pour out at an alarming rate. "I'd have to grind your face to a pulp before you'd see any improvement at all." Her words were spoken quietly, but with such vehemence that the temperature in the cave seem to drop a further couple of degrees.

It took a lot to faze serious, though, and apparently that wasn't enough. He simply shook his head slightly, arched an eyebrow and smirked. "You keep telling yourself that, Milton, but everyone knows you could never hope to be as good-looking as—"

"STOP IT!" Regan bellowed, the sheer volume of her voice causing Sirius to stop midsentence. He turned to look at with confused, incredulous eyes, paused a moment, and then burst out angrily.

"What the hell is your problem, Tain?"

Regan was livid as she pushed herself up the cave wall to her feet, fists clenched at her sides, eyes alight with a fierce passion she hadn't displayed in a long time. "What's my problem? What's _your_ problem? Why do you have to be such an asshole all the time?"

Sirius scoffed. "Because it's what I _do_. Part of my natural charm, you know."

"_No_," spat Regan, advancing on him now. "I mean why to _her?_ Why do you have to be so god damn _cruel?_"

Looking mildly amused, Sirius turned his head to look at Hannah with a teasing twinkle in his eyes. "Being a meanie, am I?" he joked, and chuckled. "What are you going to do, go off and cry?"

Hannah opened her mouth to bite back, but Regan cut her off with a frustrated exclamation of: "Ugh! Are you honestly _that_ thick, Black?"

"Regan," Hannah said quietly, a hint of warning in her voice. "What are you—"

"Thick?" Sirius interrupted, ignoring her. His face was scrunched up into a conceited look of ridicule that seemed to suggest Regan had gone around the bend. "Sorry, Tain, but I'm not the one raving like a lunatic here. So maybe you want to sit down and think about these accusations you're throw—"

"Maybe _you_ want to sit down and think about the consequences of your actions, huh?"

"In case you hadn't noticed, I _am_ sitting down."

Stifling what sounded like the beginning of an enraged growl, Regan marched forward and, before Sirius had the time to do any more than lean a couple of inches away from her in apprehension, planted a sharp, forceful kick in the side of his leg.

"Agh! What the _hell_, Tain!"

"You really don't get it, do you?" Regan's voice took on an edge of hysteria. "It's been six bloody years and you _still_ don't understand what you're doing to her."

"_Regan!_"

She whipped around and her expression softened apologetically. "I'm sorry, Han, but he has to know."

"No!" Hannah gasped, her voice sounding slightly strangled. "No, please, Regan, don't—"

"Know _what?_" said Sirius impatiently. "What the hell are you on about?"

"_Regan, you promised!_" hissed Hannah, who sounded as though she was on the verge of tears.

Regan drew in a large, calming breath in preparation for what she had to do. Deep inside, it pained her to break the promise she had made to her best friend, and yet right now, she was so caught up in the fury of the moment that telling Sirius everything was imperative—there was no way she could let him go one second longer thinking he could just bash her friend around like this and not suffer the consequences. Hannah didn't want anybody—especially him—to find out about this, and Regan respected that, but if she left it to Hannah to decide, then he would never know. She wouldn't have the nerve to tell him. He'd continue to think he could just get away with it all, and Hannah would continue to get hurt by his cutting remarks. Surely there was a point where promises between best friends could be justifiably broken—when loyalty could be temporarily sacrificed in the interest of said best friend's wellbeing.

Besides, self-restraint had never been one of Regan's strong points.

"You're killing her, that's what I'm on about," she said, her voice low and forceful and serious. "You're telling me you haven't noticed how much weight she's lost since the beginning of the year?"

Face scrunched up in confusion, Sirius protested: "What? Why would I—"

"You didn't notice the _cuts_ when she was in her cat form?"

"Cuts? Tain, what the hell are you—"

"Regan, _please_..." Hannah was sobbing now, and her voice was oddly muffled as she begged Regan to stop. It was too late, though; she had to finish what she'd started.

"You might think your stupid 'pig' jokes are funny," Regan carried on, making her voice as frosty as she possibly could, "but they're not. They're horrible and unfair and completely unnecessary, and they're hurting her. She's starving herself and hurting herself all because of you, and yet you just sit there like the arrogant bastard you are, completely oblivious to everything." Her shoulders rose up and down as she glared at him; even giving her a piece of her mind was doing little to help her mounting frustration, and she had to pause for a moment before she could go on. Meanwhile, Sirius seemed to have finally gotten the message, and though his jaw had dropped a couple of centimetres, his face was otherwise frozen—a blank slate. Muffled sobs came from the back of the cave, and Regan knew Hannah well enough to know without turning around that she was hiding her face in her hands.

"So I'm sorry if I'm '_raving like a lunatic_'," Regan said, not apologetic in the slightest, "but I think I have a _right_ to be mad, you bloody idiot. After everything you've done."

Nobody said anything after that. Regan just stood there, fuming, Hannah continued to cry quietly in the depths of the small cavern, and Sirius remained frozen in place, his features betraying a hint of horror, as if a wave of realization had finally washed over him after all this time. The cave had taken on a cold, sinister feel, but in her state of rage Regan's body was emitting such an intense heat that she feared she might breathe fire if she opened her mouth again. There was little left to say, anyway. She'd put it all out in the open. Now Sirius just had to deal with it.

Before any dealing could be done, however, the sound of rustling leaves broke into the bubble that seemed to have formed around them, and three heads snapped up at once. Somebody burst out of the surrounding woods, covered in scratches, clothes torn, a frantic and horrified expression on his face. James.

"Padfoot, you've got to come with me. Now. We don't have much time."

It took a moment for the three of them to process this—especially for Sirius, who was still completely still as if in some kind of trance.

"Sirius! Didn't you hear me?" shouted James, his tone of voice indicating that this was a very critical matter indeed.

This sound of urgency slapped some sense into all of them, and Sirius hopped to his feet, blinking and shaking his head quickly. "Sorry, mate. What is it? What's happened?"

James cast a nervous glance at the two girls, but quickly reverted to looking at Sirius, his eyes conveying a silent—and very grave—message. "There's been an accident—I need your help," said James. As if to highlight his words, the wind picked up and a gust of it _whoosh_ed into the cave, sending a shiver up Regan's spine. Hannah's sniffles and sobs were cut off with a choking sound as the word _accident_ struck their ears, and the two of them stared at James, horrified.

"What sort of accident?" Hannah squeaked at the same time Regan demanded, "Who's hurt?"

"No time to explain now," said James with a shake of his head. "Padfoot, we've got to go. You two, listen to me—" he flung an arm out to his right, pointing to a thicket of trees "—I want you to head down that way, and go as straight as you can. There's a clearing about half a mile in—I marked one of the trees so you can find it."

"You _marked_ one of the trees?" said Regan sceptically, almost forgetting that they were in the middle of a potential crisis.

James put a hand to his forehead in exasperation. "Yes, Tain—with an 'x'. And now is _not_ the time for lame jokes. After that you need to go _straight_ back to the school. No detours." He turned to Sirius. "Come on. We need to get going."

"Have you got the—?"

"Yeah." He fingered something in his pocket.

"Right. Lead the way."

The two of them took off at a run, gone before either of the girls could ask any questions. This irked Regan, who was desperate to know what was going on—but all she got from James as he disappeared into the forest was an exclamation of: "Make sure you go straight!"

Flustered, Regan turned back to Hannah, who sat crouched in the corner, hugging her knees. Her eyes were wide and frightened as she stared out of the cave, but when she realized Regan was looking at her, they narrowed and took on a distant quality. She shoved herself to her feet and walked swiftly out into the open, ignoring Regan as she went.

"Han, wait," said Regan, reaching out to grab her arm. She was quick, as she was trained to be as a Beater, but Hannah was quicker; she yanked her arm out of reach and picked up her pace, moving out into the forest where James had directed them.

A pang of guilt struck Regan in the chest, and she chewed bitterly on the inside of her cheek. She should have known this would happen, she realized now. She'd completely overstepped the boundary and betrayed her friend, and now she was suffering the silent treatment as a consequence. Mentally, she cursed herself for being so goddamned impulsive. _You and your big, stupid mouth_, she thought sourly.

But Hannah would have to get over it eventually, she tried to convince herself. She'd done the right thing. In the future, Hannah would thank her... Right?

Regan sighed and took off after her friend, reminding herself that there were bigger problems to be concerned with right now—bigger questions to be answered. Like what was going on, for starters. And who'd been hurt. That was the biggest question of all, and as Regan broke into a jog to catch up with Hannah, she could only hope beyond hope that it wasn't anything serious.

* * *

As soon as the two boys broke away from the heated tension of the cave, Sirius was all business; he hadn't forgotten what he'd heard, but he did his best to push it out of his mind for the time being. If what James had told him had any truth to it, they were dealing with something huge here. Possibly life-threatening.

"Where are we headed?" Sirius inquired as they ran through the forest, with James leading the way by a foot or two.

"Farther in. There's a big drop—if he's anywhere near where we left him, we've got problems at the top _and_ the bottom."

"Shit," said Sirius, eyes widening as he processed this answer. For a few seconds, the only sounds were those of their feet hitting the forest floor. And then, cautiously, he decided to get the questioning over with. "Who's hurt? Peter? Lily?"

"No, I haven't seen Wormtail since we sent him off on lookout duty," James said, gritting his teeth. "It's Jamie."

"Bloody hell. Of all the people..."

When James answered, his voice was almost too quiet to hear over the wind rushing past them. "You're saying it would have been better if it were Lily?"

"'Course not, mate. Just saying... Moony's gonna beat himself up pretty good if something bad's happened to her." He hesitated. "Er, what exactly _did_ happen to her?"

James took several more strides before giving a gravely simple answer. "Something bad."

Sirius took a moment to digest this. They'd had a couple of close calls before, when unruly students not dissimilar to themselves had ventured out into the grounds after dark and Remus had been in a particularly feral state of mind, breaking out of the constraints of the Shrieking Shack—but nothing quite so close as what James was suggesting. Hell, Remus had never even been _seen_ by another student before, let alone gotten close enough to one to do any damage. If things were really so serious, the aftermath was going to be utterly catastrophic; Remus would never be able to forgive himself. As if he wasn't already ashamed enough of his unfortunate condition.

Sirius was so busy contemplating this that he slammed right into James, who'd come to a stop in front of him without warning.

"What the hell, Prongs," he grumbled, stepping back and wondering what had brought their mission to a halt. James, however, didn't even seem to have noticed the impact—and it only took Sirius a few seconds to realize why. He had the Marauders' Map open in his bands, and was staring at it with a horror-struck expression.

"What?" Sirius asked worriedly. "What is it?"

"He's moving," James announced, his voice full of dread, his every muscle apparently frozen.

Sirius raised his eyebrows. "Yeah, of course. Werewolves tend to do that."

James ignored his badly timed wit and turned to stare at him, looking positively terrified. "He's going after Lily."

* * *

Lily wasn't sure how long she'd been sitting down here in this giant rabbit hole, but it felt like a year before she heard slow footsteps plodding through the undergrowth, moving gradually toward her. She was frozen from head to toe by this point, shivering violently, teeth chattering, sitting against the dirt wall right where James had left her with her arms wrapped around herself in a desperate bid to contain her body heat. It wasn't working very well, but it lent the illusion of company and security as she sat there all alone, trying not to think about what might be going on elsewhere in the forest. Something about compressing her chest like so helped her to contain her emotions, too—stopped her heart from exploding and sending her off the deep end again.

"J-James?" she called when she noticed the footsteps, but her voice was made so unsteady by her quivering that barely a sound came out at all. She was about to try again when she heard a low rumbling and instantly snapped her mouth shut. Even her breathing stopped as the sound registered in her mind, and she tried to stay as still as possible. That certainly didn't sound like James...

_Oh, God_, she thought, horrified, as she recognized the sound of large feet dragging through fallen foliage, of heavy, raspy, horrible breathing and the gnashing of teeth between two gigantic jaws.

The werewolf.

Fear flooded through her, and she dug her fingers into her elbows until her knuckles were white. This was _not_ good. She was sure she still had the smell of blood on her, even if her wounds had been dried somewhat by the wind. And why was she sitting right below the surface, anyway? She should have thought to move deeper into the hole, where she'd have the advantage of the darkness and a little more distance—but it had seemed more prudent before, when she'd been getting used to the silence and the loneliness, to stay right here, comforted by the half-light from above. Now... it didn't seem like such a great idea. In fact, she wanted very much to kick herself—but that would probably just make things worse.

The growls drew closer, and her panic increased. Was there a possibility of moving into the back of the burrow now? Could she even budge without making a sound that would catch the werewolf's attention?

She thought about it for a second. If she stayed where she was, the wolf might walk right over her head. No doubt, it would catch her scent, and once that happened, she was done for. There was no escape. Besides, there were tiny gaps in the mesh above through which bits of the forest were visible, and if she saw that horrid creature one more time, she feared the scream bubbling up in her chest might just escape.

The draw of the darkness was too tempting to resist, and when the footsteps came unbearably close, she began to inch to her right, sliding gradually into the depths of the burrow. The further she got from the horrific sounds, the safer she felt—and the pressure in her chest began to decrease little by little.

But then she pressed her hand down on a sharp twig and let out a little gasp of pain as it dug into her already torn up palm, and the footsteps came to a halt.

Lily choked on her breath and froze right there, eyes opening wide even though she couldn't see anything from down here. The wolf was no longer moving forward—instead, it sounded as though it, too, had stopped in its tracks. She could have sworn she heard it sniff the air. And then...

A stream of loud barks burst into the clearing, causing Lily to jump and hit her head on the low dirt ceiling. The sudden loud noise startled her at first and she braced herself for an attack, certain that the werewolf had found her hiding place and was about to burst through the hole and tear her to shreds. But then she heard the wolf's aggravated growl and she realized that the new canine sounds had belonged to another animal altogether. Another few seconds and she could hear the sounds of combat from up above—of limb against limb, of claw against flesh, and the unmistakable sound of antlers clashing with bone—all frighteningly close to her now-throbbing head.

_James and Sirius_, she thought vaguely, once she'd managed to wrap her mind around the situation. But what were they doing here? Weren't they supposed to be helping Jamie? She couldn't say she wasn't incredibly relieved to have somebody come to her rescue, but on the other hand, she wasn't entirely sure what was going on.

She felt a pang of dread as she heard the battle rage on; if somebody else were to get hurt tonight—especially James, she found herself thinking—she simply couldn't take it. One person was bad enough. Before she knew it she had her hands over her ears and was enveloped in a cocoon of ignorance, unable to listen to the sounds any longer. All she could do was sit there and pray that everything would be alright.

By the time she could bring herself to remove them, all was silent. She lifted her head and listened harder. From the sound of it, the three animals were gone. No more angry growls, no more scratching or tussling. Cautiously, she inched toward the dimly lit entrance to the burrow, where she'd be able to tell for sure.

Silence. Nothing.

Still, one could never be too careful. She stayed half hidden in the shadows, wondering what she would do from here. She thought about trying to get out, but James had been adamant that she stay concealed beneath the forest floor, out of reach of the werewolf, and after all he'd been through tonight, she felt she owed him a little obedience at the very least. Clearly, he knew what he was doing. She just hoped his knowledge and obvious experience would get him through this night—this horrible, horrible night—alive and intact.

She heard the werewolf howl; it sounded miles away. She was safe, and it was an immense relief to have that confirmed. Still, there were so many other things tearing at her chest that she barely had the capacity to feel reassured; Jamie was still out there, and so were her other friends.

So was James.

She wasn't sure where this newfound concern for his wellbeing had come from, but for some reason it hurt to think about him being out in the forest, throwing himself in danger's path. Almost as much as thinking about Jamie on the rocks at the bottom of the cliff.

The next thing she heard was a set of rapid footsteps, followed by another trailing close behind. She froze up again, more out of habit than anything, before she realized how light and how utterly human they sounded. Her heart leapt when she heard a familiar voice.

"Well, there's the 'x'. This should be it."

"There's nobody _here_. The idiot's sent us on a wild goose chase."

Lily scrambled forward and got to her feet, stretching up onto the tips of her toes. "Here!" she tried to call out, but her voice came out raspy and pathetically quiet. She cleared her throat and tried again. "Here! I'm down here!"

"Yeah, that doesn't sound like a goose to me." Undoubtedly Regan's words.

"What the hell? Lily? Is that you? Where are you?" Hannah's voice sounded much closer than before, and Lily answered quickly so as not to lose the opportunity.

"Hannah! Right here—er, in a hole. In the ground. Like, right next to you."

There was a sound of leaves scattering as Regan rushed over to join her. "Lily? What are you doing in the _ground?_"

"Long story—just... move some leaves and stuff. There's a weird grate sort of thing—yeah, right there—that's it."

Two sets of fingers slipped through the gaps above, and a second later she could see again. There wasn't much of a view—just moonlit branches and little splatters of the night sky here and there—but the most welcoming sight of all was the faces of her two friends hovering just overhead. All was not forgiven (she was going to chew them out big time later) but right now, in this moment of scatterbrained trauma, the sight of them was her only saving grace.

"Lils! What happened to you? You look like hell!" Hannah looked horrified despite the fact that her own face was adorned with red-rimmed eyes, a swollen lip and a nasty graze down one side of her chin.

The last thing on Lily's mind, however, was concern for her own scratches and bruises. "Nothing," she said vaguely, and shook her head. "Hoist me out of here, would you?"

With the helping hands of both Regan and Hannah, Lily managed to climb out of the rabbit hole, finding footholds of various sizes and durability where rocks had fallen out. Finally she emerged from the pit, covered in dirt and dried blood, disoriented but filled with a sense of purpose now that she was out in the open again, back in touch with the reality of the situation. She was about to open her mouth to propose a plan of action when Regan, who was glancing expectantly over the edge of the hole and had her eyebrows pulled together in confusion, cut her off with a sombre reminder of what a horrible situation they were really in, and how difficult it would be to do anything about it.

"Where's Jay? Wasn't she in there with you?"

Lily bit her lip. The mere mention of Jamie's name caused her throat to tighten once again, and she debated remaining silent about it; if she even tried to explain what had happened, she was sure, she would break down in tears. But Hannah and Regan needed to know. It would be cruel to keep them wondering and worrying. So Lily sucked in a quick breath of cool air and began to fill them in.

"No, she wasn't," she started, and then faltered. What was she supposed to tell them? She got mauled by a werewolf and thrown off a cliff? And oh, by the way, that werewolf was Remus Lupin? That was an awful lot to digest all at once, as Lily knew from having seen it all unfold before her eyes. "She... She got hurt."

"Hurt? How?" Hannah's voice squeaked as she voiced this panicked question. Beside her, Regan's eyes were fearful and her mouth half open in shock.

Lily swallowed. "She fell. Or, well..." Another deep breath, and then the rest of the story came out in a rush of broken sentences. "There was a werewolf, and it was chasing us, and it started going after me but Jamie threw herself in front of it and—and James, he was there too, but he was too late, and Jamie... She got attacked. And it... it knocked her over this cliff, and she fell, and I wanted to go back for her but James said it was too dangerous, and he was supposed to be going to help her but I heard him and Sirius chasing it that way just now, and..." She broke off, unable to go on any further, and buried her face in her hands, shaking her head helplessly.

There were several seconds of stunned silence in which neither Regan nor Hannah said anything in response. She could only assume that they were struggling to process everything Lily had said, not to mention figure out the implications. After a while she felt a warm pair of arms wrap comfortingly around her (judging by the big blonde curls she was practically inhaling, they were Hannah's) and heard Regan say in the background, "Is she...?"

Lily peered up at her over Hannah's shoulder. "Alright?" Lily choked on the word. "No, she's not. Hell, I don't even know if she's..." She couldn't say the word. Hannah's arms tightened around her, and she whispered "Oh, Merlin" in a broken voice as they clung to one another.

Regan, on the other hand, hand, was standing still, staring straight ahead at nobody in particular with her mouth partially open. "Werewolf," she said simply. "Where the _hell_ did a werewolf come from?"

Lily looked up at her again through glassy eyes, and gave her a miserable half-smile. "You saw the animals, right?"

"Yeah." Regan shook her head bitterly. "Bloody dog was Black, and I thought the stag must have been Potter, but—"

"You wondered where Pettigrew and Lupin were, didn't you?" Lily's voice was barely more than a whisper; Regan said nothing, just closed her mouth and nodded. Lily sighed and went on. "I'm not sure about Peter, but Remus... Well..." She swallowed. "I think we got the answers we've been looking for all along."

Regan looked flabbergasted, to say the least, and Hannah became a statue. Lily looked down.

Her own words had reminded her of earlier, when she'd thought about Regan and Hannah's enthusiasm, and how, if they hadn't tried to convince the others to come along on this stupid, wild adventure in the first place, then none of this would have happened. This prompted a renewal of the same anger she'd felt before, and she pulled away from Hannah, suddenly not so content to comfort and be comforted. She cleared her throat, and when she spoke again, her voice had taken on a cooler tone and she didn't meet their eyes.

"Um, what were you guys saying about an 'x' before? How did you know where to find me?"

Regan glanced at Hannah, who—to Lily's surprise—refused to look back at her and stood with her arms folded, eyes fixed on the ground. Regan sighed. "We ran into Potter," she explained, "right after..." She looked again at the unresponsive Hannah—who was shifting rather uncomfortably and grinding her teeth—and Lily noticed a tension in the air that she hadn't picked up on before. _Tension_, she thought, _between Hannah and Regan?_ Inconceivable. Then again, everything else that had happened tonight was so unreal that she was willing to believe just about anything by now.

Regan carried on. "He said there'd been some kind of accident—remind me to murder him for that understatement next time, will you? —and then he said he'd marked a tree and told us to come here, and then 'go _straight_ back to the school—no detours'." She shook her head, obviously in complete disagreement with the words she was quoting. "But to hell with that. If Jamie's out there, then I'm not—"

"If James said to go back to the school, then we should go back to the school," said Lily forcefully.

"_What?_" Hannah and Regan burst out in unison. Lily might as well have said, "Hey, Potter's going to jump off a cliff—we should go jump, too!"—apparently, they got the same message out of her original statement. But Lily only spared them a slight eye-roll; tonight, she realized, James Potter had displayed far more maturity and responsibility than any of the Rogues had, and that earned him their respect—for now, at least.

"Look, you two haven't seen this thing—I have. It's huge, and it's bloody scary." She was overwhelmed with another intense feeling of annoyance toward them, mostly at the realization that, while Hannah and Regan had been the ones who were bent and bound on seeking adventure, it had been Lily and Jamie who'd come face to face with the worst sort of danger imaginable. It had been Jamie who'd paid most dearly for their negligence, and she'd probably been the least enthusiastic of them all.

Oh, the irony.

Lily sighed impatiently. "You might think you can take on anything, but trust me, that thing could kill us all in a split second if it wanted to. The Marauders—they know what they're dealing with. They're our best bet. I think we should trust them to help Jamie."

"_Trust _them?" Hannah burst out, appalled. "Trust the Marauders? We can barely even trust _each other_ anymore, apparently." She aimed a pointed glare at Regan, who looked guiltily down at her feet, and in some part of her mind, Lily was curious as to just what had gone on between the two of them.

Regan's eyes rose to meet hers. "Lily, they're the _Marauders_," she reasoned, her voice a tad softer than Hannah's. "They've treated us like shit since first year—do you really think we should let them handle something as big as this?"

She was genuinely concerned for Jamie's wellbeing—Lily could gather as much from the look in her eyes and the sincerity in her voice. But she couldn't help but think, if she was so worried about her friends' safety, then maybe she ought to have considered that before throwing them into this situation in the first place. "Actually," Lily answered stiffly, looking Regan straight in the eye, "I don't. I think it's unfair that they should have to undo all the damage that we caused. You know, none of this would have even _happened_ if you two weren't so bloody reckless."

"Come off it, Lily," said Hannah quietly, "it was just for a bit of fun. There's no way we could possibly have—"

"Fun!" Incensed, Lily turned her livid stare on the both of them. "You two don't think about _anything_ do you? We could all have _died _tonight—hell, Jamie could already _be_ dead. But no, you wouldn't have considered that. No time to suddenly develop a conscience, right? No, we've got to 'bring them down whatever it takes'. What were the words? Oh, yeah—'catch them out on something big'." She paused for effect, fuming, and by some crazy coincidence the werewolf's howl pierced into the night at that very moment from somewhere deep in the forest, emphasizing her point dramatically. "Well, congratulations, guys. We did it."

She'd never seen Hannah and Regan so defeated before. Neither could muster up the courage to look at her; they stood there with their eyes downcast, looking like children who'd been caught tearing up the neighbour's flowerbeds. _Good_, she thought harshly. _It's sinking in, at last_. But even that wasn't enough—she'd been pushed beyond her breaking point, and she couldn't stand to look at their faces any longer. Lily stormed forward, stomping through the abnormally large gap between them, and started in the direction she knew the school to be in.

She made it at least fifty metres before there was any sign of them, and for a moment she wondered if they might have decided to go back for Jamie after all. She wasn't sure what to think of that. At this point, she couldn't really bring herself to care as much as she probably should have. She was full to the brim with all the other emotions that had been tearing her apart all night; the worry, the anger, the pain, the shock, the confusion, this strange new respect—all of these left little room for her to feel anything more. And as she made her way back to the castle, she felt all these emotions balling up into a massive, indistinguishable heap of junk, and her heart became a rock inside her chest, and she became completely detached from everything.

When Hannah and Regan finally caught up and fell into step behind her, she barely noticed. She stared straight ahead, walking briskly, hardly feeling her feet as they pounded the forest floor. She felt as though she was floating over everything, gravitating toward the tall stone walls of Hogwarts. Hogwarts: her home—only thing that had any chance of comforting her.

Well, not exactly the _only_ thing...

* * *

It had been a close call before, in the clearing with Lily, when James and Sirius had finally caught up with the werewolf and diverted its attention. Close enough that, if they'd arrived a few seconds later, there was a good chance they would have been dealing with two horrific injuries—or maybe something even worse—in one night. In other words, too close. Way, way too close.

By some miracle they'd made it, though, and the wolf was far away from Lily now. With any luck, Hannah and Regan would have found her, and they'd be on their way back to the school. The thought of Lily safely secured inside the walls of Hogwarts lifted an enormous weight off his chest, but he was still burdened by the promise he'd made her. "_Please bring her back, James._" It was a promise he might not be able to keep—at least, not in the sense that she was probably implying—but still, he was going to do everything he could to stay true to his word. That was why, while Sirius was leading the wolf on a crazy chase as deep into the Forbidden Forest as he could—without running into the centaurs or anything more dangerous than what they were already dealing with—James was on his way back to the site of the attack, where he would assess the situation once and for all.

Even though he was used to running long distances, he found his heart pounding violently in his chest as he traversed the forest and made his way back to where disaster had struck. He wasn't sure what he was going to find once he got there. A dead body, maybe. And what would he do then? He'd have to be the one to deliver the news—along with Jamie's lifeless form—to Lily, and he didn't think he could bear to see her face if that happened. If fate was on his side, he'd find a girl with a pulse. Awake? Unconscious? Fixable, or injured beyond repair? Every question brought with it a new wave of dread, and they tumbled over one another in his mind until they blurred together and all he was left with was a sense of panic and a pounding in his forehead.

Finally he reached the part of the forest where the ground began to slope sharply downward, forming a sort of path that ran parallel to the cliff face. He wasn't sure he'd ever been this far into the forest, but he had the Map, and that meant he'd be able to navigate his way out without trouble. It meant he could monitor Sirius's progress, too, and with a quick glance at the slightly worn piece of parchment, he was reassured in the fact that the black dog and the wolf had covered plenty of distance. One thing, at least, had been successful.

As James neared the bottom of the slope, he spotted her in the distance. Or rather, he spotted the blood—a _lot_ of it. It stood out like a beacon on her pale face, a striking splash of colour on an otherwise dull landscape. It had seeped into the ground, too, painting rocks red and turning the soil a revoltingly dark colour, like tar. James's stomach turned as he hurried forward. This certainly didn't look good.

He got closer and closer, bracing himself all the while. He almost didn't want to look, for fear of what horrible sight he might be confronted with. But then he was right there in front of her, only a couple of strides away, and the sight launched itself upon him before he could bring himself to look away.

One whole side of her face, torn to shreds, drenched in blood; a nasty open wound on the back of her head, turning her golden hair dark and sticky; nasty, greenish bruises everywhere; eyes closed, skin drained of colour, purple lips.

James couldn't breathe as he dropped to his knees beside her. He couldn't hear her breathing, either, and that was definitely a bad sign. Tentatively he lifted her wrist, but he couldn't quite bring himself to check for a pulse. He knew already what he would find. A shiver shot up his spine at the thought of it. He'd never known Jamie particularly well, but she was one of the Rogues—Lily's best friend—and that meant he'd spent enough time around her to know that she didn't deserve to die. Not yet. Not like this.

And Remus—what would Remus think? It wasn't his fault, of course, but Sirius was right; of all the people this could have happened to, it just had to be Jamie Love... Remus was secretive, but James wasn't stupid. He knew his friend had taken a liking to the quietest of the Rogues a few years ago, at least, and that this—his inconvenient, terribly unfair condition—had been the only thing stopping him from pursuing those feelings. Now he would be beating himself up yet again over something he couldn't control. That was without even considering the inevitable implications with the school. Dumbledore had no qualms about housing a werewolf at Hogwarts, but when a student _died _because of it, that was sure to raise a few questions. All in all, it was the last thing Remus deserved.

Still holding his breath, James looked down and prepared himself for the inevitable. Slowly, cautiously, reluctantly, he placed two fingers in the shallow crook beneath her palm, and waited.

Nothing.

His heart sunk like a boulder in his chest. Maybe he wasn't doing it right, he thought. After all, it wasn't like he had a lot of experience in situations like these. He pressed a little harder.

Still nothing.

He moved his fingers to her neck and waited, his breath still caught in his chest, every muscle in his body completely rigid with fear. For a moment, there was nothing.

And then...

...the tiniest fluttering pulsation under her skin, like the wings of a butterfly. In that instant, he felt the urge to cry out for joy—but he held on for a few more seconds, wanting to make sure that he hadn't imagined it. Sure enough, the pulse continued, frail but perfectly real. Jamie was alive.

He let out a massive breath of air, his muscles relaxed, and his face broke into a smile.

There was no time to waste, though. Even if she was alive, he needed to get her to the Hospital Wing as soon as possible, or that might not last for long. Being sure not to move her too much, James scooped her carefully into his arms—realizing as he did so that she was, in fact, breathing quiet, shallow breaths—and began to lope back up the hill, fuelled by a relief greater than anything.

* * *

The journey back to the castle was long and silent. Nobody said a word the entire time as they trekked through the cold, foreboding woods, and the only sounds were those of their footsteps and their breathing, which unfurled visibly on the frosty air. The weather was starting to cool down for sure, easing into the winter months. But it wasn't just that. Tonight there was an iciness hanging in the air that had nothing to do with the climate.

The sight of the castle was welcomed by all, with warm light emanating from some of the windows and the flags on the Quidditch pitch waving at them in the wind. The illusions were wearing off now, and it appeared as though the haunted house was empty—which, Lily supposed, could only be expected. Come to think of it, though, she hadn't the faintest clue what time it was. For all she knew, it could be past midnight by now.

By the time they'd passed the Whomping Willow—where all of their problems had begun—and reached the tall wooden door at the side entrance, Lily was ready to throw herself through them and collapse onto the ground, her warm and cosy bed all but forgotten. Strangely, she hadn't thought about it until now, but it occurred to her as she leaned forward to push against the door that she was going to be in an awful lot of trouble if (or rather, when) the teachers found out about all this. In fact, she might come face to face with trouble (in the form of Filch or McGonagall) as soon as she got inside, because she and the others were hardly being careful about making a discrete entrance. Punishment, however, wasn't exactly on the forefront of her mind right now, and the thought of running into a teacher hardly bothered her as she shoved against the door.

It took her a few seconds to realize that her efforts were completely fruitless; the door wouldn't budge at all. When she noticed this, she stood back and blinked, her tired and battered mind not quite able to process the roadblock.

"Must be locked. Damn," said Regan from behind her, smashing the tense silence as if with a brick. "Guess we'll have to find another way—"

"No," said Hannah sharply, cutting her off. She fumbled around in her robe pocket for a moment before extracting a small knife with a silver grip. "I can get it open." She moved forward, fitted the blade into the gap between the door and its frame, and slid it down in a smooth line as if cutting through nothing more durable than butter. Halfway down, the lock started spitting out blue sparks, and Hannah jumped back as if she hadn't been expecting this. When she pulled it out and tried the door handle again, however, it creaked open to reveal the darkened corridor inside.

Lily said nothing—no "thank you", no "wow, aren't we lucky you came prepared". Hannah was trying to get back in Lily's good books, it seemed, but at the moment, nothing could make up for the trouble she and Regan had led them into tonight.

The three of them slipped through the door and Regan closed it behind them, shutting out their only source of light. Had Lily been in a more attentive state, she would have grabbed her wand automatically to light up the area. Instead she just stood there, not entirely concerned with the darkness for the time being. Fortunately, behind her, Regan and Hannah had the right reaction; both reached instinctively into their pockets.

"Oh, shit," said Regan suddenly. "Where the hell did our wands go?"

Hannah groaned. "Argh—why didn't I think of that?" she said in frustration, more to herself than to Regan, to whom she was still intent on giving the cold shoulder. "We could have strapped them to our ankles, too, like I did with the knife... They must be back at the—"

There was a grating 'meow' nearby, and a pair of narrowed yellow eyes came out of the darkness toward them. Lily's heart almost stopped when she was reminded of the werewolf with its terrifying gaze, until she identified the meowing and recognized that they had indeed walked right into trouble.

"STUDENTS! STUDENTS OUT OF BED! I'LL CATCH YOU, I'LL—"

All three of them jumped when Filch came around the corner, holding up a lantern and shuffling toward them like a madman. One corner of his lopsided mouth lifted in an unpleasant sneer, and he looked like he was about to deliver a threat of medieval torture methods until McGonagall emerged behind him, looking both livid and petrified at the same time.

"Argus! No, not this time, they're the ones we've been looking for!"

Filch looked extremely put out as she came bustling past him, but the look on McGonagall's face quickly drew their attention away from the caretaker. Her eyes were wide and fearful, her lips pressed into a stern line, and to top off the frazzled appearance, her black hair, normally pulled back severely, was sticking out all around her face.

"Oh, thank goodness," she said breathlessly, and then quickly reverted to a more McGonagall-ish tone. "And just _where_ have the three of you been?"

She hadn't been concerned before, but now that she was actually confronted with a teacher interrogation, Lily was stumped. How was she supposed to answer that? _Oh, you know, we were just running for our lives from a werewolf in the Forbidden Forest. That is, _after_ we cut out of guard duty, escaped the haunted house and ran off into the grounds in the middle of the night without permission. Yeah... Here, have my badge. I'll go pack my bags._

Yep, it was starting to sound pretty ridiculous in Lily's head by now. There was no way to dress it up, either—they'd broken about a billion school rules, and that was all there was to it, at least where McGonagall was concerted. Again, Lily probably should have been more worried about this, but her mind was so worn out that she couldn't bring herself to be overly bothered.

"We were just, er...," started Regan, but couldn't seem to get any further than that.

"We went for a walk," Hannah offered. She always had been the best at lying in difficult situations, but this situation was going to be a stretch even . "Sorry. It's after curfew, we know. We... we shouldn't have been so irresponsible."

Unfortunately this didn't seem to cut it for McGonagall, who simply looked like she couldn't believe what she was hearing. "A walk?" The incredulity in her voice caused it to rise about an octave in those two small words. "Although it is indeed _completely _irresponsible of you, I am not talking about your being out of bounds after hours." She turned her head sharply to Lily, who flinched a little. "What I am referring to is your whereabouts when the rest of the students were being evacuated to the castle!"

A fragment of Lily's brain perked up at that, and she regarded the professor in alarm. "Evacuated?"

McGonagall sighed and straightened her hat as if it would help her regain some degree of composure. "Death Eaters, Miss Evans. There were reports of Death Eaters lurking outside the boundary, and we had to move all the students to a safer place. Of course, when we couldn't find our Head Boy and Girl—not to mention the bulk of our seventh year Gryffindors—well... you could say that complicated things a little." She gave them one of her classic what-do-you-have-to-say-for-yourselves? looks, and Lily's heart sank. This was far more serious than she'd originally thought.

"Death Eaters?" gasped Regan. "You mean—"

"Yes, Miss Tain," McGonagall snapped. "Followers of You-Know-Who. I assumed you were familiar with the term by now."

Regan fell silent and shrunk back. Of course, she thought, Regan was very familiar with the term and with everything it implied—not because she was involved in these things herself, but because of the degree to which her family was caught up in the Dark Arts, and the effort she'd gone to in order to separate herself from their traditions.

"So which one of you would like to attempt to explain this?" the professor asked, looking sternly between the three of them through her spectacles. When nobody responded in the next few seconds, she began to look impatient. "_Well?_"

The door swung open for a second time just then, causing all five heads in the vicinity to turn. In stumbled James, panting and carrying a limp figure drenched in blood. Lily's heart shot up through the ceiling and came crashing back down again all in the space of about a millisecond.

"Jamie!"

Instantly forgetting the presence of McGonagall and Filch—and ignoring the horrified gasps that came from Hannah and Regan—Lily rushed forward. Anxious to confirm that Jamie wasn't just some sort of illusion generated by her weary mind, she grabbed her friend's hand and squeezed it. She was there alright, but her skin was very, very cold. Stunned, she looked up at James, who was staring down at her with an unreadable expression. "Is she...?" she asked in a strangled voice.

"I think she'll be alright," James said quietly, as his mouth formed a tired smile. Lily's heart jumped through the roof again, and a massive amount of the pressure in her chest was released. She could breathe. And, crazily, for the second time in a couple of hours, she wanted to throw her arms around James Potter.

"HEAVENS!" exclaimed Professor McGonagall, who, apparently, had only just gotten a good glimpse at the figure in James's arms. "What happened to her?"

It was only now that her worst fears had been dispelled—and now that McGonagall pointed it out—that Lily really thought to examine the extent of Jamie's injuries, and she sucked in a breath through her teeth at what she saw when she looked more closely. Several jagged cuts snaked their way down one side of her face, making for a gruesome display of blood and torn flesh. There was an obvious gash on her head where she'd hit the rocks, and she looked pretty beaten up all over, but everything else paled in comparison to the wounds on her forehead and cheek. She was forced to look away from the upsetting sight, and she found her eyes travelling automatically up to James's face. He wasn't looking at her, though, or even at Jamie. Instead he was staring at Professor McGonagall with an expression of utmost panic on his face.

Lily whipped around when she realized why. Of course, she thought, suddenly feeling very stupid—it wasn't as if the entire staff would be aware of Remus's predicament. In fact, for all she knew, even Dumbledore hadn't been told (although, come to think of it, she suspected that this probably wasn't the case). McGonagall was no idiot, though; seeing Jamie with such blatantly bestial injuries, she was bound to be a little suspicious. You didn't get these kinds of disfiguring gashes from tripping over a rock.

Judging by the expression on McGonagall's face, suspicion was only the beginning of it. She'd been horrified before, but now it was as though she'd just been given the sack, or seen Slughorn pitch himself off of the Astronomy Tower. It took Lily's brain a moment to realize that she was expecting answers, and when she did, her mouth went dry. Yet again, there was no possible explanation for all this that wouldn't result in at least one—if not all—of them being expelled. James seemed just as lost as she felt, and Hannah and Regan weren't doing much to help, either (possibly because they were still so shocked at the sight of Jamie all covered in blood).

Just when Lily thought they were going to have to give up the pretences and surrender the whole truth, a voice—familiar and calm but undeniably commanding—sounded through the small gathering from just behind McGonagall and Filch.

"Ah, good, I see you've found them."

Looking a little startled, McGonagall hurriedly stepped back and turned around to face the new arrival. Albus Dumbledore stood in the gap between the Deputy and the caretaker, his face as serene as usual even though his features were set in all seriousness. He wore his usual festive Halloween robes, made of navy blue velvet and adorned with little silver moons and matching trim. It was almost a strange sight—Halloween, with the haunted house and everything, seemed so far away to Lily now, though if she thought about it, it could only have been a few hours at most since the day's termination.

There was something comforting in the knowing look Dumbledore wore as he regarded them all, and Lily realized that she'd probably been right in her earlier assumption—if any staff member knew about Remus's lycanthropy, it had to be the headmaster. And if anybody knew how to deal with something like this without causing the entire school to worry, it was Dumbledore.

"Minerva," he said softly, but in a voice that clearly implied he meant business, "I believe Filius and Aurora could use your help with security matters up on the Astronomy Tower. It sounded rather urgent when I spoke with them."

It was a few seconds before McGonagall managed to respond. Her eyes flitted again over to Jamie and widened as they rested there, before she seemingly snapped out of it and turned back to Dumbledore. "I... Yes, yes, of course," she said, and she straightened her robes and swept off down the hall.

"Argus, if you please, I think I may have spotted several first years out of bed on the third floor," he told Filch, who was still looking extremely aggravated at having been denied several detention victims until the Headmaster spoke these words. At this point his face lit up like it was Christmas morning and he hobbled off in the same direction McGonagall had gone, moving faster than Lily had ever seen him move before.

And then Dumbledore was left alone with the five rule-breakers just by the door, their small group illuminated only by the light from his wand. He looked at Jamie for a moment, and then at James, finally skimming over the other three of them before speaking. He directed his words at James in particular. "She was not bitten, I presume?"

James shook his head. "Just scratches. But they're pretty bad."

Dumbledore tipped his head down in acknowledgement. "It would be wise to take Miss Love to the Hospital Wing, I believe. You'll have the chance to explain yourselves once she is being attended to by Poppy."

James nodded in understanding and began to move down the hall. Lily followed along mindlessly, with Hannah and Regan and Dumbledore behind her, speculating over the strict, business-like order with which the two of them had addressed one another. She wondered if anything like this had ever happened before, or anything even remotely similar. She thought about how difficult it must have been to keep a secret like this for all these years... And suddenly, the brother-like bond between the Marauders made a lot more sense to her—in a very twisted, almost saddening way.

When they arrived, Madam Pomfrey (somewhat surprisingly) was still bustling about the infirmary, straightening sheets on beds and gathering up various bottles and vials from nightstands. Her head snapped up when she heard the door open, and she looked momentarily irritated at the sight of these late arrivals. "Another one? I swear to Merlin, this whole haunted house thing was a bad—" She broke off when they came closer and she saw the state of Jamie's face, and she let out a horrified gasp. When she glanced at the rest of the crowd and saw Dumbledore was there, a look of horrible realization dawned on her features, and she snapped her mouth shut before opening it again to stutter out, "A-Albus, what is the meaning of this? I thought...?"

"Our resident werewolf may have been provoked, it would appear. But there is no time to discuss, Poppy—as you can see, her case is very dire."

"Alright, alright," said Madam Pomfrey, and she set to work immediately, pulling back the woollen blankets on the nearest cot and gesturing for James to lay down her patient. "Right there, Mr Potter—I'll be back in a few moments."

He lowered Jamie carefully onto the white sheets so that she lay perfectly straight, with the soft pillow caressing the back of her head. Her hair, the colour of butterscotch, poured out in soft ripples across the pure white pillowcase, and from this angle the cuts on her face were completely invisible; she almost looked peaceful for a moment. That was, until Madam Pomfrey came hurrying back into the room with a tray of cloths and assorted medical items that looked like they were reserved for emergencies. When Lily saw the sinister-looking bottles marked with unrecognizable symbols, the reality of the situation sunk back in, and she felt tears threatening at the corners of her eyes again.

As the nurse approached Jamie with all her strange implements, Lily was forced to look away, only to have her eyes land on James. He was fidgeting uncomfortably, looking down at his feet, and after a couple of seconds his face set into an expression of resolve and he stepped toward the Headmaster.

"Professor, if you don't mind, I should probably go back and help with... damage control," he said somewhat quietly to Dumbledore, who met his eyes and nodded in response.

"I trust you'll be careful."

James nodded hurriedly and swivelled around to start on his way out the door.

"NO!" Lily exclaimed before she could stop herself. At least four heads turned toward her at the sound of her raised voice, and she froze in place as she realized what she'd just done. The truth was, she couldn't bear to have James—or anybody, really—go out there again. Now that they were safe behind the walls of Hogwarts, it seemed stupid and reckless to back out into the fray. Maybe she was being selfish, but it pained her to think of James jumping straight back into battle, risking his life when he had the option of staying right here... with her.

"I mean...," she said slowly, desperately racking her brain for a way to rectify the situation. In the end, she decided to tell some portion of the truth. "Err... It's dangerous. Do you have to go back out there?" Tomorrow, maybe, she'd be kicking herself for admitting her concern out loud. Right now, certain other things were just _slightly_ more important than her dignity.

James appeared to be vaguely amused—if a little surprised—as he looked back at her, but there was something warm in his eyes, too—a sort of reassurance. "Sirius can't do it all on his own," he reasoned. "It's alright, Lily—I'll be fine. I know what I'm dealing with, and like I said, I'll be careful."

Lily felt blood rising to her cheeks as she smiled shyly in response; James mirrored the gesture and held her gaze for a moment longer before turning around and hurrying out the door.

Once he was gone, the room suddenly seemed ten times emptier. It was colder, too, and Lily shivered involuntarily as she turned back around. Madam Pomfrey working efficiently on Jamie's wounds, dabbing them with a damp cloth and applying an assortment of liquids and gels to the open abrasions. Hannah and Regan were looking on worriedly but didn't say anything. She wondered if they were still feeling guilty from the blow-out earlier. A strangely sadistic part of her hoped that they were.

All the while, as she watched the nurse treating her unconscious friend, something was nagging incessantly at Lily's thoughts—something that had been on her mind for quite some time, but something she wasn't entirely sure about. Something she remembered from all the notes she'd taken in DADA. More specifically, something she'd written about in her late essay—the one dreadfully concluded with "werewolves are people too".

She took a deep breath and decided to get it over with. "Those aren't going to heal, are they?" she blurted out, and regretted it almost immediately. She felt far more nervous now that she'd actually voiced her worries aloud, and to add to the anxiety she felt, Hannah's and Regan's heads had snapped toward her as she spoke, their startled expressions almost identical. Clearly, it hadn't occurred to them—or, more likely, they hadn't been paying attention in DADA.

The nurse looked up at her with very serious eyes. "I'll do what I can," she said, "but as I'm sure you know, werewolf-inflicted injuries, by nature, are very difficult to treat. The skin almost never returns to its original state after such trauma. " She looked vaguely apologetic as she spoke her next words. "I can tell you with complete certainty that there will be scars—although how severe, it's difficult to tell at this stage." She poured a small amount of some green liquid into a tiny cup and moved it toward Jamie's bluish, immobile lips. Apparently, she didn't have anything else to add.

Lily was shocked into silence and unconsciously began to move backward. In the process, she hit the leg of a chair with her foot, and in turn was so tempted by the draw of actual furniture that she collapsed into it without even turning around. The hard wood did little to comfort her, but it was better than standing up in any case, for she feared she might soon have passed out from exhaustion and emotional overload if she'd remained on her feet.

Jamie was going to have scars. By the looks of it, major ones. She'd always been exceptionally beautiful, and now... one whole side of her face would be permanently marred, all thanks to one night of carelessness and an entirely unexpected turn of events. Lily knew it was shallow to be so devastated at something like this, and she was one hundred percent confident that she would love Jamie all the same even if she looked like a pile of dung with arms and legs, but it was sure to take a toll on her self-esteem. She wasn't all that confident to begin with, and her looks had always been what had driven her to be more self-assured. Hopefully Jamie could get past that, but Lily couldn't help but worry. One self-deprecating friend was trouble enough. Two would be unbearable.

For the next twenty minutes or so, Lily sat there and watched Madam Pomfrey work her magic on Jamie. Neither Hannah nor Regan seemed to see fit to find a chair, and they continued to observe from slightly further away, their faces painted with concern but otherwise quite blank. Dumbledore stayed for quite some time, but eventually told them he had important business to attend to, and departed, mentioning on his way out that he would save the interrogation for tomorrow when they were all "well rested" and "of sound mind".

At long last, the nurse put down the bottle and cloth she'd been working with, stood up, and sighed. "I've done everything I can for now," she announced, beginning to clean up her work station. "That's a nasty head wound she's got—by the looks of it, she'll be out for a while."

"How long?" Lily inquired.

"It's hard to say. But even if she woke up this instant, I'd still have to keep her in for her other injuries. It's probably best if you all go back to your dormitories."

Lily wasn't sure she wanted to leave Jamie here all alone, but she stood up anyway, mostly because she was too tired to argue at this point. When she got to her feet, however, Madam Pomfrey stopped her.

"Hold on—you've got to be cleaned up, girl."

She'd all but forgotten about her own afflictions; despite the gash in her forearm, she'd barely felt any pain since the incident out in the forest, and with everything else going on, she hadn't thought to examine herself for further damage. Madam Pomfrey quickly took to her cuts and grazes with some kind of healing solution, and Lily discovered that her palms were practically torn to pieces—apparently, those rocks and twigs had done far more damage than she'd originally thought. She had a scrape on her head, too, and several other injuries she had no recollection of receiving. Finally, Madam Pomfrey gave her a potion to drink and, after informing her that she'd feel better after a good night's sleep, moved on to Hannah's face with a tut-tutting noise.

After that, the girls were released. They made their way silently out of the Hospital Wing and up one flight of stairs in single file, each following the previous by quite some distance. When they made it to the next staircase and Lily veered off down the corridor instead of climbing it with the others, Regan turned around and looked at her in confusion.

"Hey, Lils, the Common Room's this way...," she said, but seemed to realize halfway through her sentence what Lily was doing, and trailed off into silence.

"I'm going to the Heads Room," said Lily dully, looking away from her. "'Night."

With that she set off down the hall toward the familiar double doors at the end. She wasn't quite sure what had made her come here, but she'd decided, back at the Hospital Wing, that it would be the best place to go tonight. She needed to clear her mind, and she couldn't do that while she was in Hannah and Regan's presence, let alone in the room that housed Jamie's empty bed. She just needed to sink into a cosy mattress and think comforting thoughts while she drifted off to sleep, forgetting that any of this had ever happened.

"Extremo Otium," she mumbled to the door, and it swung open for her. She stepped inside, and almost immediately her battered mind and heart were soothed, as if just being here were some sort of remedy. On her way to the stairs, she walked past the couch she'd once harboured an irrational fear of, and she almost laughed out loud. _Maybe _that's _why I came here_, she mused, and the thought prompted her to stop in her tracks. Her mind ceased all proper function then, and her feet carried her toward the sitting area, where she gravitated toward the two-seater couch and melted into the cushions. She inhaled deeply and smiled to herself, noting that the scent of James Potter was still inarguably present.

And when she drifted off to sleep not ten seconds later, her mind was far away from werewolves and scars and guilty best friends. Instead, she was thinking of messy black hair and a pair of hazel eyes, a shy smile, and the words: "It's alright, Lily—I'll be fine."

She knew he would, somehow. And maybe she'd wake up tomorrow and start kicking herself for all the things she'd said and done, or think she'd been crazy to be comforted by the thought of James Potter, and to trust him over two of her best friends. Maybe this would all seem like some nutty, completely illogical dream.

But in a way, it had all been a dream up until now. Despite how dazed she'd been all evening, tonight had been a night of clarity for Lily.

In a way, she felt like she'd only now awoken from a very long slumber.

* * *

**A/N:** Right. So I didn't exactly update when I said I would (the first time... or the second) but from now on I'm saving my pathetic explanations for the TMATR blog I created as another excuse to procrastinate, just so I can reserve these author's notes for important stuff like... Like... Begging for reviews and advertising my various redundant websites. Yes. Important stuff like that.

On that note, though, if you haven't yet seen said TMATR blog, you might want to check it out. Link is, as usual, in profile. I'm actually really, really tired right now (I'm like a zombie), and I don't think I have enough brainpower left to write a coherent AN, so I might just cut this here and write a blog post tomorrow instead. Sound good? It does to me. Mmmm, sleep...

Okay, important points: 1) Dreadfully sorry for the ridiculously long wait. I am as pathetic as Peter Pettigrew. And you know how much that means, coming from me. 2) I know there are some inconsistencies in this chapter (i.e. Lily suddenly not having an aversion to blood) but these are mostly things that I'm in the process of reworking in earlier chapters for various reasons (i.e. I hate Twilight with a passion now and can't believe I ever drew inspiration from it). 3) There are probably other important things to say, but I'm just too tired to remember them (let alone put them into words) so I'm going to stop here.

Oh, and review. If you feel like it. :)

~PrincessEarth


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